NASHVILLE – Tennessee revenues tiptoed into the black during April with collections rising to $1.243 billion – $43.4 million more than had been budgeted originally, Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz said today, but year-to-date collections still remain down.
“April is the first positive sales tax growth month in almost two years – since May of 2008,” Commissioner Goetz said in a news release. “Sales tax collections started their downward spiral starting in January of that year and, beginning with the month of June, recorded an unprecedented 22 consecutive months of negative collections.”
The sales tax is the state’s main source of revenue. Sales tax collections in April were $9.7 million more than budgeted estimates with growth pegged at 5.62 percent.
But the state has a huge revenue hole to overcome – for the first nine months of this fiscal year, revenues are still $201.8 million less than expected. That’s 4.11 percent below projections.