The state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) issued its monthly report on general fund revenue collections this past week.
This report covers payments received between February 11 and March 10 for the sales tax, the use tax, the business and occupation tax, the public utility tax, the tobacco products tax, and penalties and interest (collectively the Revenue Act receipts), and it covers payments received between March 1 and March 31 for liquor taxes, cigarette tax, property tax, real estate excise tax, unclaimed property and other sources.
This report includes payments primarily from monthly filers.
The total amount received this month was $1,896.6 million, $110.0 million (6.2%) more than the amount expected under the forecast that ERFC adopted on November 18th.
For the month, Revenue Act taxes (primarily the sales, use, utility, and business and occupation taxes) exceeded forecast by $96.3 million (6.0%). These taxes generally reflect economic activity in the month of January. For the month, Non-Revenue Act taxes exceeded forecast by $13.6 million.
For 9 of the last 10 months, year-over-year CPI inflation exceeded the year-over-year increase in GFS revenues. While inflation has trended downward since mid-summer, the gap between inflation and revenue growth for this month was considerably smaller than those for the preceding three months.
The March collections report is available here.
Read the entire article from the Washington Research Council
