DALLAS — Arkansas revenues rose 2.3% in December to $482.8 million and registered 4.2% above the budget forecast for the month, according to John Shelnutt, chief economic forecaster for the state.
Monthly revenues were below forecast in the two largest categories, sales tax collections and individual income tax collections, according to the report from the Department of Finance and Administration. But corporate income tax collections of $85.4 million rose $21.1 million, or 32.8%, above forecast.
Sales tax collections totaled $188.4 million, representing growth of $1.9 million, or 1%, from December 2013. The figure trailed forecast by $2.1 million, or 1.1%.
Shelnutt provided no explanation for the rise in corporate income tax collections, "other than it is a volatile category."
The December report also noted that state revenues benefited from dips last month in individual income tax refunds, which totaled $2.2 million, or $1.1 million below a year ago, and corporate income tax refunds, which totaled $5.2 million, or $1.6 million below a year ago.
For the first six months of the fiscal year that began July 1, net available general revenues totaled $2.6 billion, which was $83.4 million, or 3.3%, above the same period in the previous fiscal year and $44.1 million, or 1.7%, above forecast.
The report came Jan. 5, as Gov. Mike Beebe prepared to leave office after eight years as chief executive.
Beebe, a Democrat, will turn over the reins to Republican Asa Hutchinson, who takes the oath Jan. 13. Hutchinson will work with a legislature controlled by his party.
In his weekly radio address Jan. 2, Beebe reviewed the milestones of his past two terms in office.
"When I took office in 2007, Arkansas had a strong economy and a surplus of nearly a billion dollars," Beebe said. "We were off to a good start."
The reality of the deepest recession since the Great Depression set in late in 2008, Beebe said.
As the recession reached its nadir in 2009, Arkansas increased its state tobacco tax, allowing for the establishment of a statewide trauma system and bolstering an array of health-care programs, Beebe said.
"We were again able to cut the grocery tax, this time with a smaller reduction, even while daunting economic times loomed," the governor added.
"Arkansas never operated at a deficit at any point during the Great Recession," Beebe said. "Only four states can make that claim, and, of those four, ours has the largest population."
