This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 3, 2011 - The state of Missouri's income numbers are continuing to improve -- enough that Gov. Jay Nixon announced today that he's directing $10 million more to public schools to help pay for student transportation costs.
State Budget Director Linda Luebbering said the money is in addition to $7.5 million in transportation funds that Nixon released last month. The $17.5 million in total represents almost a quarter of the $70 million that the governor initially had withheld.
By law, the governor can knock out money allocated in the state budget, or simply "withhold'' it, in order to make sure that the state ends its fiscal year with a balanced budget, as required by the state constitution.
"This uptick in state revenue allows us to provide additional funds to help schools statewide pay for K-12 transportation," the governor said in a statement.
The action came as state Budget Director Linda Luebbering announced today that the state's revenue collections for the current fiscal year (2011) are running 6.3 percent above the numbers for the 2010 fiscal year -- a bit more than expected. The year-to-date tally now is $4.13 billion, compared to $3.88 billion at this point a year ago.
For January, net general revenue collections increased by 15.9 percent ($650.4 million) compared to those for January 2010 ($561.2 million).
But Luebbering cautioned in an interview that the January increase isn't as great as it seems. The bulk of the improvement is because the state doled out far less in tax refunds, compared to January 2010, she said.
It's unclear if that means there will be a reduction in refunds over the next six months, or if the requests for refunds are simply slow in coming in, Luebbering added.
Taking the refunds out of the picture, the state's income increase is still running slightly above the 3.6 percent revised estimate for the year, she said. But the budget director cautioned that nothing conclusive can be reached until the final quarter of this fiscal year (April-June). If income remains up, the governor then may restore more budgeted spending that had been withheld.
For the 2012 fiscal year, which begins July 1, the governor's budget staff and legislative leaders are agreeing on an estimated 4 percent increase. But because of cuts in federal aid, some trims are expected to be needed, compared to this current fiscal year.
Here's the state's breakdown of this fiscal year's revenue picture, so far:
Individual income tax collections
Increased 3.0 percent for the year, from $2.88 billion last year to $2.96 billion this year.
Increased 1.6 percent for the month.
Sales and use tax collections
Increased 1.4 percent for the year from $1.04 billion last year to $1.05 billion this year.
Increased 9.0 percent for the month.
Corporate income and corporate franchise tax collections
Increased 7.8 percent for the year, from $245.3 million last year to $264.4 million this year.
Decreased 21.1 percent for the month.
All other collections
Increased 17.3 percent for the year, from $235.4 million last year to $276.2 million this year.
Increased 35.5 percent for the month.
Refunds
Decreased 16.0 percent for the year, from $508.7 million last year to $427.4 million this year.
Decreased 46.2 percent for the month.
