The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration on Wednesday reported July net available general revenue of $555.3 million, up $11.3 million, or 2.1%, from a year ago.
Collections in the first month of the fiscal year came in at $15.9 million, or 3%, above forecast.
The department reported that gross general revenue in the month totaled $643.3 million, an increase of $27.4 million, or 4.5%, from the same month a year ago. The figure was $21.9 million, or 3.5%, above forecast.
All major collection categories were above forecast.
Sales tax collection growth was broad-based but notably higher than year-ago levels in retail, motor vehicles and restaurant sales. Collections totaled $282.3 million, an increase of $9.9 million, or 3.6%, from last year. That beat the projected amount by $1.8 million, or 0.6%.
Collections from motor vehicle sales taxes were up 5.6% from a year ago. In the accommodation and food services category, collections rose by 10.7%
Individual income tax collections totaled $276.2 million, up $23.1 million, or 9.1%, compared to last year and above forecast by $13 million, or 4.9 %, due in part to payday timing differences.
Corporate income collections were above forecast across all subcategories of filings, totaling $31.2 million. That’s $3.9 million lower than a year ago, but $9 million above the projected figure.
Income tax refunds were above forecast and accounted for the main difference in performance between gross revenue and net revenue results. Individual income tax refunds came in at $23 million, or 27% percent above forecast, while corporate income tax refunds totaled $2.8 million, or 63.6% higher than projected.
Among smaller revenue sources, tobacco tax collections totaled $16.9 million, lower than a year ago and about $1 million below forecast.
Gaming tax revenue came in at $5.9 million, higher than in July 2022 and above forecast by about $500,000.
The state ended the previous fiscal year with a $1.2 billion surplus, second only to the $1.6 billion surplus it recorded in 2021.
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