The Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma lawmakers, already facing a tight budget year, will most likely have less money to spend than previously thought, state Treasurer Scott Meacham said Tuesday.
Meacham commented after releasing a January revenue report showing decreased tax collections and getting raw numbers for next year from the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
Legislators thought they would have $32 million in growth funds to spend, based on revenue estimates approved by the state Board of Equalization in December.
The hope of legislators was for an increase in available revenue when the board meets later this month to make its final certification.
It now appears that even those growth funds certified earlier will be wiped out, Meacham said.
“Based on the magnitude of the numbers that we got from the Tax Commission, it appears to me that we will see a decrease in appropriations authority, not just from December but from last year,” Meacham said.
“We’ve seen a huge decrease in corporate income taxes, which we know is very sensitive to the economy,” he said, while also pointing to declines in personal income taxes tied to tax-cut legislation and in natural gas tax collections.
“The collections clearly show the growth rate in our economy is slowing down.”
House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, said he was not surprised by the numbers.
“This will simply mean we must continue to search out ways to make government more efficient and find savings where we can, which was also supported recently by Gov. Brad Henry in his executive budget,” Benge said.
The development is bad news for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, which stood to get $50 million under previously approved legislation tied to state revenues growing by 3 percent.
“It now looks like the roads trigger will not be flipped,” Meacham said, reducing the amount ODOT will get to $17.5 million.
“We didn’t have a good revenue report and we didn’t have a good report from the Tax Commission,” the treasurer said.
His report showed a drop in income, sales and gross production tax collections in January, compared to the same month a year ago and to the official estimate upon which the current state budget was built.
Total collections to the state’s General Revenue Fund were down $38.5 million, or 6.7 percent, compared to a year ago. The fund is used to pay for most government functions.
They also were 4.6 percent below the amount that was estimated to come into the treasury.
Corporate income tax collections in January showed the biggest drop — 62.4 percent from the same month a year ago.
Personal income tax collections were down 8.8 percent. Sales taxes fell 4 percent and gross production taxes on natural gas dropped 7.9 percent.
Meacham said year-to-date tax collections still indicate economic growth for the state.
