Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that March revenue collections decreased by 6.1 percent from March of last year. March is not generally a significant month for revenue collections, and growth rates can be can be distorted due to the timing of the leading edge of final and estimated payments from corporations and individuals which are due April 17 and May 1. On a year-to-date basis, total revenue collections rose 4.4 percent through March, ahead of the annual forecast of 3.6 percent growth.
The decrease in March revenue was primarily driven by a 42.6 percent decline in corporate income tax receipts, a 10.5 percent decline in individual nonwithholding payments, and a decline in sales tax revenues of 1.9 percent, reflecting a negative trend that has sales tax revenues running below projections for five of the last six months. The Commonwealth experienced a slight increase in withholding, which was up 2 percent in March.
Adjusted for the accelerated sales tax program, total state revenues grew 4.0 percent through March, slightly ahead of the adjusted annual forecast of 3.4 percent growth.
“Although March is not a significant month for revenue collections, this month’s numbers remind us that our future economic growth is still uncertain,” said McDonnell. “Virginia’s unemployment rate is the lowest in four years, the lowest in the Southeast, and the second-lowest east of the Mississippi, and we have added over 167,300 net new jobs since February 2010. Overall increases in revenue and employment depend on this economic recovery continuing. However, despite this positive news, more than 238,000 Virginians remain unemployed and the sequester is threatening up to 200,000 additional jobs in Virginia, so clearly we have much more work to do to get Virginians back to work and to continue growing our economy.”
The March revenue numbers are available at this link: http://www.finance.virginia.
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