Dan Carden, Times of Northwest Indiana
dan.carden@nwi.com
INDIANAPOLIS | State revenue is $254 million below the state budget forecast through the first quarter of the budget year, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Thursday.
Revenue totaled $2.853 billion, 8 percent below the forecast, and down 14 percent compared to the same period last year.
"The job of keeping Indiana above water, solvent, while other states are not, is not getting any easier," Daniels said.
Sales taxes, income taxes and corporate taxes all came in below the forecast and were each down significantly from last year.
Corporate taxes had the steepest percentage decline, bringing in $131.3 million between July and September 2009, compared with $228.1 million in July-to-September 2008 -- a 42.4 percent difference. Corporate taxes were also 30.5 percent below forecasted revenue.
Sales tax revenue was 10.9 percent lower than the first quarter of last year and 4.5 percent below the forecast, while individual income taxes were 20.3 percent below last year and 15.2 percent below the forecast.
Daniels said he will ask budget forecasters to update their "out-of-date" models, "because people aren't spending as much money as they were."
The sole bright spot in the state's revenue picture is gambling revenue. Riverboat wagers were 4.7 percent higher than forecast and 0.6 percent higher than last year.