Another sign of a slowly recovering economy in Oklahoma was shown this week by the state government when it released general revenue fund collections for January which were nearly 16% lower than a year earlier.
The Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprises Services announced the collections totaled $597.5 million, an amount that was $112.2 million lower than January 2020.
However, total general revenue fund collections through the first seven months of fiscal year 2021 were $3.9 billion which was 0.2% above the estimate and $77 million or 2.0% above the prior year collections for the same period.
Gross production tax collections were nearly 64% below estimates and 69.4% below the previous year’s total. They totaled $20.6 million compared to the $46.8 million actually collected in January 2020.
Natural gas collections were $20.6 million and came in $158,000 or 0.8% below the previous year. Oil collections were zero and the OMES said will not be a major contributor to the general revenue fund until the first $150 million of oil collections to other receiving funds is met.
Total January collections marked the first month this fiscal year that came in below the estimate.
OMES Director Steven Harpe said collections were especially weak in income and oil production taxes, which accounted for $85.8 million of the $113.2 million short of the January estimate. After this month, it is likely collections will begin to fall below year-to-date estimates for the remainder of the fiscal year.
“While it’s promising to see year-to-date collections remain above estimates, we will continue to be fiscally conservative as the state perseveres through the pandemic,” said OMES Director Steven Harpe.
The Board of Equalization meets on Feb. 16 to determine its final revenue projections for fiscal year 2021. The board will also certify revenue estimates for fiscal year 2022.
As state government’s main operating fund, the GRF is the key indicator of state government’s fiscal status and the predominant funding source for the annual appropriated state budget.
GRF collections are revenues that remain for the appropriated state budget after rebates, refunds, other mandatory apportionments and after sales and use taxes are remitted back to municipalities. In contrast, gross collections, reported by the State Treasurer, are all revenues remitted to the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
Revenue tables can be viewed on the OMES website: https://oklahoma.gov/omes/media/financial-data-tables/2021/january-2021-financial-data-tables.html.