PROVIDENCE – State revenue was $43 million lower than forecast during the first nine months of the fiscal year, the R.I. Department of Revenue said this week.
In the month of March alone, revenue was nearly $16 million lower than expectations.
Revenue for the fiscal period through March totaled approximately $2.37 billion compared with expected revenue of $2.41 billion, a 1.8 percent decrease. In the month of March, revenue totaled $323.4 million, compared with $339.3 million that was expected, a 4.7 percent drop.
DOR spokesman Paul Grimaldi said comparisons are complicated due to more tax refunds being issued at this point than last year. He noted that the corporate filing date also was pushed to April 15 from March 15, which contributes to business corporation taxes being $16.8 million less than last March.
For the fiscal period, main revenue drivers such as personal income tax and sales and use tax fell 0.6 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, over what was expected, to $876.7 million and $747.2 million.
Cigarette tax revenue grew 1.3 percent over what was expected, to $104.5 million, while alcohol tax revenue fell 1.3 percent over what was forecast, to $14.3 million.
In March, personal income tax rose 13.7 percent over what was expected, to $64.6 million, and sales and use tax fell 4.9 percent, to $69.8 million. Also in March, cigarette and alcohol tax revenue increased over what was expected, by 4.8 percent to nearly $11 million, and 2 percent to $1.4 million, respectively.
Lori Stabile is the PBN Web Editor.
