April 11, 2017 10:08 AM
Georgia Tax Revenues Up 2.1 Percent in March
An announcement made yesterday by Gov. Nathan Deal stated that Georgia’s net tax collections for March, 2017 totaled almost $1.57 billion, an increase of about $32.5 million (2.1%) from March, 2016. This brings the net tax revenue collections to $15.8 billion for the current 2017 -18 fiscal year, which is up $530.9 million (3.5%) from last year.
The following is a breakdown of the March, 2017 revenues in comparison to March, 2016:
| Description | Amount Collected | Change From March, 2016 | % Change |
| Individual income taxes | $733.7 million | $123.5 million | 20.2% |
| Gross Sales & Use Tax | $826.1 million | $5.2 million | 0.6% |
| Net Sales & Use Tax | $435.2 million | $0 | 0% |
| Corporate income taxes | $96.9 million | -$82.8 million | -46.1% |
| Motor Fuel Taxes | $131.9 million | -$2.7 million | -2.0% |
| Tag and Title Fees | $31.6 million | -$2.5 million | -7.3% |
| Title Ad Valorem Tax | $76.3 million | -$2.2 million | -2.8% |
A copy of the March, 2017 financial report can be seen at the Governor’s website.
About Author
lawtonsack
Lawton is a graduate of Georgia Southern University (the GSU) with a degree in Information Technology. He has held numerous positions within the Georgia Republican Party throughout the years.
2 Comments
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Oh goodness. I read the top line in a Galloway tweet yesterday and concluded that the economy is likely slowing down a bit. And it may be. But the line by line above provides an economics Rorschach test.
The good news: Individual income taxes up 20%. That means Georgians are making more money. We do have a slightly progressive income tax. The more Georgians get on and move up payrolls, the better this number is going to look. Most importantly, this is roughly half of Georgia’s total revenues. Always good to see this number going up if you’re in charge with balancing next year’s fiscal budget.
Corporate Income taxes are the big drag. This number is wildly variable month to month. Not going to worry too much unless there’s a several month pattern here.
While not a huge part of Georgia’s total income stream, a possible canary in the coal mine is the auto title fee dropping. People aren’t buying as many cars. That’s often a leading indicator of economic activity. I’m not as worried about this one as I would usually be because it appears to be lender induced. Auto companies have started issuing 84 or even 90 MONTH car loans. This has proven to be troublesome for two reasons: 1) It borrows from future sales, and 2) 12-24 months in the consumers are so buried in their auto loans they can’t trade out, and thus defaults are on the rise. Luckily, this is fairly quick on self-correction, and automakers/captive lenders appear to be doing that, per CNBC.
Overall, the national economy is currently fairly stable, though still far from robust economic growth. Georgia has rebounded after a hard crash, is fiscally sound, and growing again. Much remains to be seen what happens in DC with regards to tax reform and health care. It’s OK to be cautiously optimistic with respect to the state’s fiscal condition and growth prospects at the moment. Keep in mind that all economics has at its root “rational expectations” of participants. If the situation in DC deteriorates quickly and/or we get into one or three foreign skirmishes, this can all change quite rapidly.
Do you think the auto fees being down has anything to do with the changes in the last few years (and this year by extension) to how fees are now assessed? Could that have had an effect on dampening the mood to buy a car?
(I will admit that I was going to buy a car right around the time the ad valorem changed. I partially changed my mind and hung on to the one I had cause I figured why pay more when I dont have to. I was only buying the car for pleasure, not need. )