Nebraska’s September tax receipts above forecast
The Nebraska Department of Revenue released their report for September’s 2020 General Fund tax revenues today, and the state is continuing to recover from the recession we entered just a short 6 months ago.
According to the department, the actual tax revenues are 5.4% higher for the fiscal year than projected by the state’s revenue forecasting board.
Fiscal year net tax revenues:
- Net sales and use taxes: 11% above forecast
- Net individual income taxes: 4.6% above forecast
- Net corporate income taxes: 6.8% below forecast
- Net miscellaneous taxes: 0.1% above forecast
If we look at the month in isolation, September was $16.3 million or 3.2% above the forecast measured in net taxes.
Right now, this looks favorable for Nebraska. Even though the pandemic is continuing, and business is not back 100%, our state’s tax revenues are strong and meeting expectations.
The current forecast was made on July 23, 2020 in a special meeting to update the state’s status before lawmakers voted on the major property tax relief package, LB1107. At that meeting, the board lowered the estimate for sales taxes by $55 million and individual income taxes by $164 million. They raised the forecast for corporate income taxes by $23 million while keeping the forecast for miscellaneous the same.
The next forecasting board meeting is scheduled for October 29 in Lincoln. Policy watchers are anxious to see what the forecasting board decides to do. This forecast will determine the revenue basis for the governor and Legislature when crafting their budgets for the FY 2021-22 biennium budget.