Commonwealth Posts 0.7 Percent Revenue Decline in September

Press Release

Governor Bob McDonnell announced today that total general fund revenue collections fell by 0.7 percent in September, primarily due to a decline in corporate income tax receipts and two fewer deposit days than in September of 2011.

While net individual income tax collections rose by 2.7 percent and sales tax collections rose 3.6 percent, the September revenue losses were driven by a 17.7 percent fall in corporate income tax collections. This is due to a weakness in estimated payments from certain large corporations. September is a significant month for corporate income tax collections since the first estimated payment for the fiscal year is due.

On a year-to-date basis, total revenue collections rose 1.3 percent through September, trailing to the annual forecast of 2.9 percent growth. Adjusting for the accelerated sales tax program, total revenues grew 0.4 percent through September, trailing the adjusted forecast of 2.7 percent growth.

"September's decline in revenue is a stark reminder of the tenuous recovery our nation and our Commonwealth is undergoing. While Virginia continues to fare better than most other states in this difficult economy, we must remain vigilant in our efforts to encourage business investment and job growth, and foster economic activity whenever possible," said Governor McDonnell. "We must keep taxes low, streamline regulations, and put in place policies that help the private sector to help get our economy back on track.

"More than 250,000 Virginians are still out of work-an unacceptable statistic that hits home throughout the state. Uncertainty on the federal level-especially in terms of the future of our national defense budget-only adds to this insecurity and makes our recovery more fragile. We continue to contend with federal policies that are detrimental to private-sector job creation and which continue to make any recovery more difficult. We need to take every possible step to help the private sector grow and expand and innovate, and in the process create more good-paying jobs for our citizens. That is how we will get Virginians back to work."

The September revenue numbers are available at this link: http://www.finance.virginia.gov/KeyDocuments/RevenueReports/FY2012-2013/2013ReportsList.cfm

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