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News Release

PRESTON L. DOERFLINGER
Secretary
of Finance and Revenue

MARY FALLIN
Governor

Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012
For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
RON JENKINS
Public Information Officer
Oklahoma Office of State Finance
(405) 521-3267

General Revenue Collections Pick Up in September;
Three Top Tax Categories Up Over Previous Year

OKLAHOMA CITY – General Revenue Fund collections swung back to positive territory in September, easily topping projections and receipts for the same month a year ago, state Finance Secretary Preston L. Doerflinger announced Tuesday.

"Three of the four major contributors to the General Revenue Fund—combined income, sales and motor vehicle taxes—showed growth in September," Doerflinger said. "The Oklahoma economy has been on a roll the past two years and this report indicates to me that our recovery from the recession is still ongoing."

Total collections to the General Revenue Fund for the month of September were $541.9 million, up $15.6 million and 3 percent from a year ago. The amount collected for the month was $19.3 million and 3.7 percent higher than the estimate.

Gov. Mary Fallin was pleased with the latest GRF report. "With three of the four major contributors to the General Revenue Fund on the rise, it's another positive sign Oklahoma's economy is on the right track," Fallin said. "Our state continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, while ranking among the top job-creating states. By focusing on pro-growth policies, we'll be more able to keep Oklahoma's economic momentum moving forward."

The September report contrasted with the GRF report in August, when total receipts declined by 6.8 percent from the previous year due mainly to lower natural gas tax and income tax receipts.

"This illustrates perfectly why it's unfortunate that some read too much into variances in GRF tax receipts from month to month," Doerflinger said. "For instance, income tax collections are often unpredictable because of a number of factors such as the amount of rebates, timing of remittances and number of collection days in a particular month."

Doerflinger said the uninformed might look at the small amount of oil and natural gas taxes accruing to the General Revenue Fund and conclude wrongly that there was little activity in the Oklahoma oil patch.

He pointed out that the GRF never receives any money at the start of a fiscal year from oil taxes because the first $150 million in oil tax receipts are earmarked to education funds.

"As for lagging natural gas tax collections this quarter, the GRF is losing nearly as much money due to expiration of the moratorium on energy tax credits as it is losing because of prices," Doerflinger said. "Fortunately, strong tax collections in other areas are making up for those losses."

The secretary of finance said the Oklahoma Department of Commerce's latest Economic Snapshot report shows Oklahoma continues to be second among the states in manufacturing job growth and now has 3,000 more jobs overall than before the recession.

"Since Gov. Fallin took office, we've gained more than 59,000 jobs, including 12,300 in manufacturing. Personal income is rising and our unemployment rate of 5.1 percent in August was the fourth lowest in the country," Doerflinger said.

"It's evident that the governor's pro-growth policies and job recruitment efforts are leading to a more diverse economy and moving the economic needle toward a brighter future in Oklahoma."

The General Revenue Fund is extremely broad in scope and is watched closely by state policymakers because it is the main fund used to pay the bills for general government operations. It is simply the fund where all state revenues flow, in the form of taxes and fees, except for revenue dedicated or earmarked to particular areas or programs of state government.

The monthly GRF reports have been generated continuously for decades by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, known formerly as the Office of State Finance. The reports deal exclusively with state revenues. Through September, revenue has been collected for the GRF from almost 70 sources of fees and taxes.

Each December, the state Board of Equalization votes on the "official estimate" of revenues that will accrue to the General Revenue Fund during the next fiscal year, and that figure becomes the starting point for building the state budget.

Total General Revenue collections for the first quarter of the new fiscal year were $1.3 billion, down $6.4 million or 0.5 percent from the same period of FY-2012 but were $22.3 million and 1.7 percent above the estimate.

Major tax categories in September contributed the following amounts to the General Revenue Fund:

Income taxes – The total collected from individual and corporate income taxes in the month of September was $293.9 million for the FY-2013 General Revenue Fund, which was $36.9 million or 14.4 percent more than prior year collections and $39.3 million or 15.4 percent above the estimate.

Individual income tax receipts of $207 million were $438,954 and 0.2 percent below the prior year and $3 million or 1.4 percent below the estimate.

Corporate tax collections were up for the month, contributing $86.9 million to the General Revenue Fund, which was $37.4 million or 75.4 percent above September 2012 collections and $42.3 million or 94.7 percent higher than the estimate.

Sales tax -- Sales tax collections in September produced $159.5 million for the General Revenue Fund, which was $11.4 million or 7.7 percent more than the prior year and $3.8 million or 2.4 percent above the estimate.

Gross production tax –- Gross production tax –Gross production tax collections from natural gas brought in $1.7 million and oil collections made no contribution to the General Revenue Fund. Natural gas gross production tax collections were $27.8 million and 94.2 percent below prior year collections and $17.8 million or 91.3 percent lower than the estimate.

Motor vehicle taxes -- This tax source produced $18.9 million from September collections, which was $1 million or 5.4 percent above the prior year and $1 million or 5 percent below the estimate.

Other Revenue -- Other revenue produced $67.7 million for the General Revenue Fund in September. This amount was $5.8 million or 7.9 percent below the prior year and $4.9 million or 6.8 percent below the estimate.

Income Tax Comparisons with Prior Year (Month)
	FY-2012 Actual	FY-2013 Actual	SUMMARY September 2012 Variance from Prior Year
	MONTHLY COMPARISON		SUMMARY September 2012 Variance from Prior Year
	September 2011	September 2012	$	%
*Taxes*
Income - Individual	$207,437,118.57	$206,998,163.84	-$438,954.73	-0.2%
Income - Corporate	$49,552,676.71	$86,937,068.42	$37,384,391.71	75.4%

Total	$256,989,795.28	$293,935,232.26	$36,945,436.98	14.4%