Christmas sales, estate tax collections boost state revenues

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY _ A boost in estate tax collections along with brisk holiday sales and increase in income tax revenue has given the state addition revenue. <br><br>State budget officials said January's

Wednesday, February 11th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY _ A boost in estate tax collections along with brisk holiday sales and increase in income tax revenue has given the state addition revenue.

State budget officials said January's general revenue collections topped $492.7 million, which was $68.3 million or 16.1 percent more than January 2003's total and $53.4 million or 12.2 percent more than the official estimate.

The increase should stave off agency budget cuts, said State Finance Director Scott Meacham.

``It looks very unlikely that budget cuts will be necessary this fiscal year,'' Meacham said.

Meacham noted ``unusual activity'' in estate tax collections for the month.

January estate tax collections totaled $45.7 million, which is $41.5 million or almost 1,000 percent more than one year ago and $38.7 million or almost 550 percent more than the estimate.

January sales tax totals, which include the tail-end of the Christmas shopping season, were up.

State sales taxes netted $115.6 million for the month. That was $6.3 million or 5.8 percent more than the previous January's total and $2.8 million or 2.5 percent more than the estimate.

``State revenue collections continue to show that Oklahoma's economy is pulling out of the revenue crisis of the prior year,'' Meacham said. ``We continue to see strength in individual income tax and sales tax, two key barometers of the underlying economy.''

Income tax collections produced $236.7 million for January. This was $30.6 million or 14.9 percent more than January 2003's total and $1.5 million or 0.7 percent more than the estimate.

Gross production taxes on natural gas yielded $35.2 million for the month, which was $4.8 million or 15.8 percent more than January 2003's total and $5.3 million or 17.6 percent more than the estimate.

Motor vehicle taxes yielded $19.9 million, which was $700,000 or 3.6 percent less than the total of the previous January and $100,000 or 0.5 percent less than the estimate.

Other revenue brought in $85.4 million for January. This was $27.3 million or 47 percent above the January 2003 total and $43.9 million or 105.7 percent above the estimate.