While 2013 began just a few days ago, Missouri's Fiscal Year is now half-over, and so far officials say it's been a good one.
The latest numbers from Governor Jay Nixon's Budget Office show a 7.9 percent increase in revenue collections from July to December, as compared to the same 6-month period a year ago.
At that time, the Show-Me State had collected around $3.49 billion in revenues. A year later, collections stand at $3.77 billion. Budget Director Linda Luebbering credits an improved economy.
"Certainly we're doing better this year from a growth perspective than we did last year," Luebbering said. "(We've got a) very strong growth rate this year -- good news."
Luebbering says, though, that revenues could dip again, in part because of the phase-out of the state's franchise tax.
"The legislature and the governor approved elimination of the franchise tax," Luebbering said. "We will (also) be seeing, for example, the payroll tax going up at the federal level, (and) higher federal taxes tend to equate with lower state tax collections."
Meanwhile, sales tax collections in Missouri dropped 1.4 percent between November and December, but were still slightly higher than they were in December of 2011.
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