Delayed tax revenues obscure state's economic weakness

The tax revenue outlook for Oklahoma's state and local governments remained grim in July despite a sharp income tax revenue increase attributed to a threemonth delay in the filing deadline, state Treasurer Randy McDaniel said Wednesday.

McDaniel said gross revenue to the treasury totaled $1.43 billion in July, a 27.2% increase over t he same month a year ago.

Gross state revenue is all taxes paid to the treasury, including those collected on behalf of local governments and money returned to taxpayers in the form of refunds and rebates.

"While July collections were strong, a different picture emerges when taking into account the delay of income tax filing," McDaniel said in a news release. "The details show the positive bottom line is concealing some less than favorable developments."

The spike was largely caused by the decision to push back this year's filing deadline from April 15 to July 15. Thus, income tax receipts this July were more than twice those from a year ago.

McDaniel pointed out that $360.5 million surge did not fully offset a corresponding $414.5 million shortfall in April.

Arguably, the most hopeful sign in Wednesday's report was as light up tick in sales and use taxes, which area primary revenue source for local and state governments.

Gross production taxes on oil and gas continued well behind last year' s pace but were up slightly from June.

Motor vehicle taxes were down less than 1% from a a year ago, and the "other taxes" category that includes motor fuel, medical marijuana, tobacco and alcohol was down about 5%.

Gross state revenue for t he past 1 2 months are down $378.6 million, or 2.8%, from the previous 12-month period.