Oil and Gas Tax Collections Up in May—-Others Were Down

With oil and gas production booming in Oklahoma’s STACK and SCOOP plays, gross production tax collections were up significantly in May as part of the General Revenue Fund Collections reported by Secretary of Finance Preston L. Doerflinger.

However, overall general revenue fund collections missed the official monthly estimate by 1.5 percent, leaving the state with just enough money to pay its bills as the state approaches the end of the 2017 fiscal year.

As for the tax collections on oil and gas production, they totaled $13.7 million, a figure that was $3.7 million or 3.5 percent above the estimate. The total was also $7.8 million or 131.4 percent above the previous year.

Natural gas collections were $11.4 million, a total that was 120 percent above May of 2016,. They were also $1.8 million or 19.2 percent more than the estimate and $.2 million above the prior year.

Oil tax collections totaled $2.8 million or $1.8 million or 357.8 percent over the estimate. The oil collections were also 208.9 percent or $1.6 million more than a year ago.

Motor vehicle collections totaled $17.8 million or 13.5 percent more than the estimate and 13.2 percent more than May of last year.

“While May’s collections were still below the monthly estimate,” said Doerflinger referencing the overall general revenue fund collections, “total collections are now on a more stable footing and with only one month left in FY 2017, we are clearly on schedule to repay the money we were forced to borrow this fiscal year without further cuts.”

He said if the trend continues, Oklahoma should end the fiscal year in a better position than predicted in February.

“Which means possibly returning some of the monies pulled from agency budgets because of the revenue failure declaration,” he added.

General Revenue Fund collections in May totaled $385.5 million  or 1.5 percent under the official estimate. May also marked only the second time in eight months that corporate income taxes contributed anything to general revenue, although still far below the estimate because of high refunds.