December Revenue Numbers Released

State revenue numbers were released Friday for the month of December and the month turned out better than expected and exceeded the monthly revenues from the previous year. Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson said that state revenues for December were $2 billion or $217.2 million more than the budgeted estimate with growth of nearly 5% percent from December 2021. However, Bryson was cautious in his optimism by saying that December total tax collections represented the lowest monthly revenue growth for the current fiscal year to date with December being the 5th month in the current fiscal year which began August 1st. Bryson said state corporate taxes, or franchise and excise taxes, made moderate gains for the month, but negative growth from tobacco taxes and privilege taxes diminished total tax proceeds. All other taxes combined were nearly flat compared to December 2021, but they exceeded our monthly budget estimates. Bryson stated that the sales tax growth rate for December was 5.64% and that the Tennessee’s current overall growth rate for this fiscal year is 8.2%.