FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – There was some excellent news for state finances on Tuesday as Kentucky’s General Fund saw a huge reversal from a decline in September, to a sharp increase in October.
The State Budget Director’s office reported October’s General Fund receipts rose 11.5 percent, or $94.7 million, over last year’s total. Revenues for the month were $920.7 million compared to $826.0 million collected in October 2018. Receipts have increased 3.6 percent for the first four months of the fiscal year and can decline 0.7 percent over the final eight months of FY20 to achieve the official revenue estimate of $11,462.0 million.
Budget Director John Chilton notes the gains were largely concentrated in three areas: sales and gross receipts, individual income taxes and the lottery dividend payment.
“Consumption-based tax revenues continue to perform well as nearly all gross receipts and excise accounts were up sharply,” he said. “The sales and use tax rose by 9.2 percent in October and 8.1 percent thus far in FY20. The sales tax continues to show strength, aided greatly by recent legislation that expanded the base of the sales tax to include additional services as well as extending the imposition of sales tax to an increasing number of online retailers and facilitators. In addition, the individual income tax rose 4.9 percent on the strength of higher withholding collections.”
Chilton says the combination of these factors was welcome news coming off the heels of a September decline in General Fund revenues of 1.2 percent over a year ago.