Revenues again fall below predictions

By By Andrew DeMillo, The Associated Press

Arkansas finance officials said Tuesday that the state collected $17.8 million less than expected last month, as state agencies prepared to detail their plans for cutting budgets.

Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Director Richard Weiss said it was too soon to tell whether the state would need to cut its budget again after seeing another drop in individual, sales and corporate income tax collections. Gov. Mike Beebe last month ordered a $100 million cut in the state’s budget.

Weiss said the numbers showed that the state’s economy was “unsettled.”

“This is an early read on our new forecast. We need to watch it for a couple of months, see what’s going on and if we see a continued decline in these things there may need to be another budget cut,” Weiss told reporters.

The state’s net available revenues totaled $313.5 million in October, which was also $39 million below last year. The figures put Arkansas’ revenues below last year’s totals by $78.6 million.

The biggest drop for the month came from corporate income taxes, which totaled $10 million in October. T hat was $3.9 million below forecast, a 27.5 percent drop.

Weiss said the state expected to make up the loss later through some one-time corporate tax payments later in the year.

Individual income tax collections totaled $191.3 million, which was $3.4 million below forecast and $4.9 million below last year’s figures. Sales tax collections totaled $163.1 million, which was below forecast by $6.9 million and $15 million below last year’s figures.

Tuesday is the deadline for state agencies to detail how they plan on making the cuts Beebe ordered last month. The Board of Correction this week voted to cut the state prison budget by $6.3 million by not filling open positions, reducing its supplies and delaying the expansion of a unit for prisoners with special medical needs.

Beebe has said he didn’t expect any layoffs from the round of budget cuts and expected many of the reductions would come from not filling vacant positions. Beebe’s office said the governor was continuing to watch the revenue figures.

“There’s no plan to revisit the cuts over the next few months,” Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said.