Rising tax take a sign of a strong Dec. economy

Georgia collections up 10% in December from a year earlier.

Tax collections soared in Georgia in December, marking a second strong month for the economy after a slow start to the fiscal year.

Tax collections soared in Georgia in December, marking a second strong month for the economy after a slow start to the fiscal year.

Collections improved 10 percent in December over the same month in 2016. Overall for the fiscal year, which began July 1, collections are up 4.1 percent, or about the same as they were last year during the first six months.

That means about a $445 million increase in revenue for the fiscal year.

The big jump is good news for Gov. Nathan Deal and state lawmakers, who will begin the 2018 General Assembly session Monday on a fiscal high note.

State collections were off during the first one-third of the fiscal year, leading to concerns of an economic slowdown. But the numbers have looked better during the holiday season.

The two biggest sources of revenue for the state to fund its budget — personal income and sales taxes — were up 13.1 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, in December over December 2016.

Deal will present his spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year — likely to run state taxpayers about $26 billion — next week.

The state budget, which will be about $50 billion when federal funding is included, is the only legislation that lawmakers are mandated to pass every year.

It helps fund the education of more than 2 million students and provides health and nursing care for about 2 million Georgians. The state funds road improvements and prisons, economic development initiatives and cancer research, business and environmental regulation, parks and water projects. It creates thousands of private-sector jobs through construction projects, and it helps pay the salaries of more than 200,000 employees and teachers.