General Revenue Fund collections in November flattened, dropping below prior year receipts and the official estimate, Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Services Preston Doerflinger reported Thursday.
According to Doerflinger's report, November General Revenue Fund collections of $382.5 million were $0.6 million, or 0.2 percent, below prior year collections and $2.2 million, or 0.6 percent, below the official estimate upon which the FY2015 appropriated state budget is based.
GRF collections exceeded prior year collections in each of the four months of FY2015 before November and beat the official estimate in three of the four months prior to November. Total GRF collections for the first five months of FY2015 were $2.236 billion, which is $140.9 million, or 6.7 percent, above the prior and $80.3 million, or 3.7 percent, above the estimate.
Oil prices hit their highpoint in July at over $100 per barrel. They have tumbled, particularly over the past week, to just over $60 on Thursday.
The gross production tax on oil generated $236.0 million for the FY2014 General Revenue Fund, according to OMES records. That was just 4.2 percent of the total $5.606 billion collected during that fiscal year.
The November revenue announcement comes as members of the Board of Equalization prepare to meet Dec. 18 to consider their first FY2016 revenue estimate, which also will determine where a 0.25 percentage point reduction of the individual income tax will take effect Jan. 1, 2016.
The FY2015 revenue estimate and appropriated state budget was built using an assumed average oil price of $86.99 per barrel.
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