INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana last month suffered its largest revenue miss of the budget year, with tax collections coming in at $63.5 million, or 4.4 percent, short of expectations.
The state took in $1.37 billion in January, far less than the revised revenue forecast's prediction of $1.43 billion.
Even worse, the state budget adopted in 2013 predicted revenues of $1.48 billion for January, a $110 million, or 7.5 percent, shortfall.
Income tax collections missed their target for the sixth month in a row and only minimally topped collections from January 2014, despite ongoing drops in Indiana's unemployment rate.
The individual income tax brought in $592.9 million versus expectations of $644.1 million, a difference of $51.2 million, or 8 percent.
Indiana actually paid out $2.8 million more in corporate income tax refunds than the state took in during January.
Corporate income tax collections are down $24.2 million, or 5.3 percent, through seven months of the budget year compared to the same period the year before, proving false claims by Republican Gov. Mike Pence and Republican legislative leaders that generous corporate income tax cuts would increase state revenue.
Even the 7 percent sales tax, the state's largest revenue source, fell short of expectations last month at $683.2 million. That was $8.1 million, or 1.2 percent, less than forecast.
The January revenue miss could give lawmakers pause as they craft the state's next two-year budget.
The governor has proposed stingy spending increases — less than the inflation rate for most agencies, including education — but House leaders have been looking at ways to boost spending on specific state priorities, particularly schools, in the proposed budget they're set to release next week.