Kansas tax revenue picking up, but collections still down fiscal year to date

has issued its March report, and it contains some good news for state policy makers.

Overall state revenue was up 4.3 percent in March 2014 compared with March 2013. State revenue from sales, oil and gas severance, and corporate income taxes were all higher compared with a year ago.

Increased revenue could mean a bump in the state’s economy.

But individual income taxes were down 10 percent from a year earlier. That’s worrisome, because the Gov.

tax cuts were in place in March 2013. That means March 2014 individual collections have slumped even from the lower revenue point a year ago.

In March 2013, with the tax cuts in place, Kansas collected $122.6 million from individual income tax payers.

It projected collections of $125 million this March.

It collected $110.4 million.

March comparisons are difficult, though. Collections depend in part on how people file their tax returns, and how they pay what they owe.

So perhaps it’s better to look at the nine-month trend. In that case, overall revenue is down 6 percent from revenue for the first nine months of the previous fiscal year, which inlcuded six months of pre-tax-cut revenue and three months with the cuts in place.

Individual collections are down 14.6 percent. Sales taxes are down 3.7 percent, fiscal year-to-date.

This story was originally published March 31, 2014 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Kansas tax revenue picking up, but collections still down fiscal year to date."