by T.A. DeFeo
Georgia continues to report tax collections lower than a year ago, with May’s collections down by more than 1 percent as the state heads toward the end of the fiscal year, new numbers reveal.
Georgia officials said the state’s net tax collections in May surpassed $2.4 billion. However, that is a decrease of 1.1 percent or $26.3 million compared to last May, when net tax collections approached $2.5 billion.
In the first 11 months of fiscal 2024, which ends on June 30, the Peach State’s net tax revenue totaled $29.9 billion. That total is down roughly 1.2 percent or nearly $367.6 million from fiscal 2023.
However, without motor fuel taxes, which the state suspended at times since March 2022, officials said revenues for the first 11 months of fiscal 2024 decreased 4.3 percent from last year. Motor fuel tax collections have totaled more than $1.5 billion this fiscal year, an increase of 141.5 percent from last year.
Meanwhile, state revenue numbers show individual income tax collections of more than $1.2 billion in May decreased by 3.3 percent, or nearly $42.2 million, from last year. In the fiscal year to date, individual income tax collections are down 6.3 percent.
The nearly $14.7 billion in individual income taxes collected in the first 11 months of fiscal 2024 are nearing the $15.5 billion that Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s amended fiscal 2024 budget estimated.
State revenue numbers show that corporate income tax collections are similarly down 9.4 percent this fiscal year. However, gross sales and use tax collections are up 2.2 percent in fiscal 2024.
Kemp’s original fiscal 2024 budget estimated more than $32.4 billion in total state treasury receipts. Lawmakers subsequently amended the budget to anticipate more than $32.8 billion in state General Fund revenues.
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T.A. DeFeo is a contributor at The Center Square.
Photo “Georgia State Capitol Building” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
