PROVIDENCE – General revenue cash collections in Rhode Island in fiscal 2019 through May have totaled $3.6 billion, a 6.9% increase over the same fiscal 2018 period. The gain for the fiscal year to date came despite a 3.1% decline in cash collections in May to $269.3 million.
A number of the component categories of cash collections made significant improvements for the fiscal year through May:
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- General Business Taxes increased 67% to $372.1 million
- Sales and Use Taxes increased 6.7% to $1 billion
- Lottery transfers saw an 11.5% increase to $354 million
The collections for May compared with May 2018 were varied:
- General Business Taxes more than doubled to $18 million
- Sales and Use Taxes grew 9.8% to $92.3 million
- Lottery Transfers fell $24.9% to $34 million
A deeper look into the cash collections revealed a number of things. For example, the Historic Structures Tax Credits claimed fell 35.6% to $16 million for fiscal 2019 through May. The program is running out of money for future projects, with no expectations that the fund will be replenished. In addition, the Rebuild Rhode Island tax credit program, which included the possibility of support for historic-structure rehabilitation, has been scaled back in the just-passed budget for fiscal 2020.
Cash collections for the Meals and Beverage tax grew 1% to $181.2 million through the first 11 months of fiscal 2019, although collections for May 2019 showed a 7.4% increase year over year to $16.1 million.
Gaming revenue showed the significant growth that moving from Newport Grand to the Twin River Tiverton Casino Hotel produced. Cash collections produced at the new casino (opened at the end of August 2018) from video lottery terminals grew 89.5% to $44.6 million. Cash produced by sports betting and traditional table games, both available at the Tiverton facility but not at Newport Grand before it closed, brought in $1.4 million.
VLT collections at Twin River Casino Hotel, in Lincoln, grew 0.5% over the year to $219.3 million, while traditional table games and poker tables produced 2.7% and 6.4% more, respectively, through May, combining for a total of $15.8 million.
Cash collections for May reflected similar trends, with Tiverton Casino Hotel more than doubling cash collections over the year to $5.3 million over Newport Grand. Twin River Casino Hotel experienced an 8.1% decline in cash collections from VLTs to $21.6 million. Traditional table games at Twin River’s original facility saw a 5.4% decline year over year to $1.4 million, while poker table cash collections grew 8.7% to $102,956.
