By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – The amount of revenue the state of Missouri collects each month continues to drop.
The May 2009 General Revenue Report shows the state collected five percent less revenue than at the same time last year.
Linda Luebbering is Budget Director for Missouri.
"We anticipate that that's going to continue to get worse as we go through June...we don't really have any reason to believe that June collections will begin to pop back up," Luebbering said.
Sales and use tax collections are down from $1.8 billion to $1.7 billion over the past year, and corporate income and franchise tax collections are down 13 percent from a year ago.
"It's really driven by the national economic situation...fewer people working, more people working fewer hours than they would like to, and they have less money to spend, and that all rolls into lower tax revenue collections," Luebbering said.
Luebbering also says the continued drop in revenue may cause Governor Jay Nixon to cut portions of the 2010 state budget approved by lawmakers last month.
She adds that the state will also likely need to borrow money from its reserve fund during the next fiscal year, which begins July 1st.