By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – The amount of money Missouri has to work with continues to drop.
April's General Revenue Report shows state tax collections are about half a percentage point, or $30 million, less than they were a year ago at this time.
Linda Luebbering is the state's Budget Director.
"Revenues are really not holding up as well as we had hoped...although we were projecting pretty dismal results for the year at a negative four percent, it's looking right now like we may not even meet that forecast," Luebbering said.
She adds that there is more than one reason why.
"You've got people who are recognizing losses in their investments as they're filing their Missouri tax returns, so you have some of that, but certainly it's linked to unemployment and the financial market," Luebbering said.
Although personal income tax collections through April were up by one percent, sales tax collections dropped by nearly five percent, and corporate and franchise tax collections dropped 12 percent.
Luebbering says the only potential bright spot is the prediction by some experts that the nation's economy won't fall any further, but that also remains to be seen.