Ohio State Senators are preparing to put out their version of the state budget, in which they need to trim hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure it’s balanced. And now the state budget office is reporting another big loss in tax collections for the current fiscal year.
May’s preliminary numbers show personal income tax collections came in almost $89 million below projections – a miss of nearly 14 percent. Because other revenues were up – notably, the state’s commercial activity tax – the total tax collections shortfall for May was $67 million. State budget director Tim Keen says this shouldn’t dramatically affect the ongoing budget process.
“The May tax revenue numbers are absolutely consistent with our previously announced expectation that budget and revenues would have to be reduced by at least $400 million in each year,” Keen said.
While Keen’s office says it believes the state will end this fiscal year in the black, May’s report shows a total fiscal year shortfall of close to $841 million.
