Rainy day funds tapped despite improved November collections

Oklahoma’s revenue beat expectations last month by nearly 8 percent.

Despite the higherthan-expected revenue, state Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger cautioned that the increase likely doesn’t signal a significant improvement in the state economy.

Collections to the general revenue fund in November were $390.6 million, and came in at $28.7 million above the monthly estimate, according to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.

“It was a solid month for state revenue and I’m glad to see we exceeded the estimate this period,” Doerflinger said. “It should be noted, many of the gains we are seeing are not necessarily indicative of a strengthening economy.

The strong showing this month appears to have more to do with law changes taking effect and boosting returns rather than economic growth.”

Gross production tax revenue took a hit, coming in at 25 percent below the estimate.

In a House committee meeting Monday, OMES Director Denise Northrup said the state wouldn’t have to borrow from funds like the rainy day fund to meet monthly cash flow needs.

On Tuesday, however, Doerflinger said he would have to make a transfer of funds.

“That prediction was based on preliminary numbers from last week and has changed after receiving the final revenue numbers for this month,” said Doerflinger.

“Final numbers required OMES to borrow $35.1 million to meet this month’s allocations.”

The money was borrowed from the remaining cash from last year’s revenue collections and will be repaid, he said.

Cash-flow borrowing has been a normal practice since September 2016.

It’s a method used to meet the government’s obligations, including appropriations to agencies, that are done on a monthly basis.

In March, lawmakers learned that Doerflinger had to borrow from the rainy day fund so much that it was left temporarily empty. State law requires that any money borrowed has to be paid back by the end of the fiscal year.