State Tax Collections Continue Free Fall

Posted on April 4, 2009 by billmanzi

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts released the March tax receipt numbers, and the numbers were not good. Receipts were down from a year earlier by $309 million, and revenue missed the new downgraded target by $53 million. The overall drop in revenue after nine months is $979 million, and more importantly revenue is below the new lowered target number after nine months by $117 million. It now appears likely that absent additional state action the Commonwealth could face a FY2009 deficit in the $300 to $400 million dollar range. That will present the Governor and Legislature with some pretty difficult choices. Those choices, as terrible as they are, will need to be made immediately if not sooner to avoid a further hit to the rainy day fund that doing nothing brings us to.

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2 Responses to State Tax Collections Continue Free Fall

  1. Jules Gordon says:
    April 4, 2009 at 9:28 am

    Your Honor,

    I have a feeling the free fall will continue. Maybe the state ought to set a much lower target so it won’t have to revisit the issue multiple times.

    I sit here waiting for the 3 trillion dollar stimulus plans to kick in. Can you see anything happening?

    Even our stimulus Czar seems to dampening hope for the benefits of our state’s share of the stimulus bill.

    The guys over at the NYSE seem to be seeing something.

    Jules

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  2. Bill Manzi says:
    April 4, 2009 at 10:18 am

    I agree with point one. Michael Widmer, at the onset of FY2009, said that the state would be short by a substantial amount. If they had used his forecast instead of their own it would have still hurt, but the pain would have been imposed at the begining of the fiscal year, and not the end. Kicking the can down the road can bite you in the rear, and that is what happened here.

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