Sales tax drop, continued low oil prices weaken GRF
Weak Black Friday causes further declines in December
OKLAHOMA CITY — General Revenue Fund (GRF)
collections continued tumbling in December following a weak Black Friday cycle and deepening state revenue declines related to low oil prices.
As state
government’s main operating fund, the GRF is the key indicator of state
government’s fiscal status and the predominant funding source for the annual
appropriated state budget. GRF collections are revenues that remain for the
appropriated state budget after rebates, refunds and mandatory apportionments.
Gross collections, reported by the State Treasurer, are all revenues collected
by the state before rebates, refunds and mandatory apportionments.
December GRF collections of $462.6 million were $70.1
million, or 13.2 percent, below the official estimate upon which the Fiscal
Year 2016 appropriated state budget was based, and $85.1 million, or 15.5
percent, below prior year collections.
Total
GRF collections for the first six months of FY 2016 were $2.6 billion, which is
$172.1 million, or 6.2 percent, below the official estimate and $182.5 million,
or 6.6 percent, below prior year collections.
Even with Black
Friday occurring in December, sales tax collections to the GRF were
10.6 percent below the estimate and 6.8 percent below the prior year.
“On top of the ongoing oil price problem, December
collections fell further when bad Black Friday weather sent a lot of
shoppers online instead of to brick and mortar stores where sales taxes are paid. States like Oklahoma will struggle to collect sales tax from most online sales until Congress passes the Marketplace Fairness Act,”
said Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Technology Preston L.
Doerflinger. “The outlook ahead remains challenging because the effects of the bottom
of the barrel oil prices we’ve seen in recent months will be more readily manifested
in January, February and March collections.”
Doerflinger
is director of OMES, which issues the monthly GRF reports.
Major
tax categories in December contributed the following amounts to the GRF:
-
Total
income tax collections of $226.9 million were $11.4 million, or 4.8
percent, below the estimate and $25.7 million, or 10.2 percent, below the
prior year.
Individual income tax collections of $226.9 million were $13.1 million, or
6.1 percent, above the estimate and $4.2 million, or 1.8 percent, below the
prior year.
Corporate income tax collections were entirely consumed by refunds and
contributed nothing to the GRF.
- Sales
tax collections of $163.1 million were $19.4 million, or 10.6 percent,
below the estimate and $11.9 million, or 6.8 percent, below the prior
year.
-
Gross
production tax collections of $9.2 million were $23.2 million, or 71.6
percent, below the estimate and $29 million, or 75.9 percent, below the
prior year.
Natural gas collections of $8.8 million were $8.5 million, or 49 percent,
below the estimate and $2.3 million, or 20.7 percent, below the prior
year.
Oil collections of $357,210 were $14.7 million, or 97.6 percent, below the
estimate and $26.7 million, or 98.7 percent, below the prior year.
- Motor
vehicle tax collections of $16.9 million were $4.4 million, or 20.9
percent, below the estimate and $3.8 million, or 18.2 percent, below the
prior year.
- Other
revenue collections of $46.5 million were $11.7 million, or 20.1 percent, below
the estimate and $14.7 million, or 24 percent, below the prior year.
Monthly
revenue tables are available on the OMES website: https://www.ok.gov/OSF/News/December_2015_Financial_Report_Data_Tables.html
Media Contact
JOHN ESTUS
Director of Public Affairs
(405) 521-3097 | john.estus@omes.ok.gov
 About the Office of Management and Enterprise Services
The Office of Management and Enterprise Services
provides financial, property, purchasing, human resources and
information technology services to all state agencies, and assists the
Governor’s Office on budgetary policy matters. Our mission: Supporting our partners through unified business services. For more information, visit OMES.OK.gov.
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