State sales tax collections drop $106M in first full month of coronavirus
Tennessee’s sales tax collections decreased by $106 million in the first full month of the coronavirus pandemic compared with the same month last year, a $13% drop.
General fund revenues missed projections by $144 million in May and have fallen short of expectations by $308 million through the first 10 months of the budget year.
Here’s the full release from the Department of Finance and Administration:
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Butch Eley today announced that revenues for May were $981.9 million, which is $197.3 million less than the budgeted monthly revenue estimate. State tax revenues were $184.7 million less than May 2019 and the overall revenue for the month represented a negative growth rate of 15.83 percent.
“May sales tax collections represent consumer spending that occurred during April, when Tennesseans were staying at home and many businesses were closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Eley said. “While sales of autos, apparel, furniture and restaurants dropped extensively, building materials and food stores sales experienced considerable growth. The state also realized large drops in gasoline tax receipts, motor vehicle title and registration taxes and mixed drink revenues.
“We responded quickly to develop plans that would mitigate revenue shortfalls at the outset of the pandemic and now the work begins to bring spending in line with what economists predict we will experience. We are encouraged about the improving employment numbers in Tennessee and while we hope for solid recovery trends, we are preparing for a longer and slower growth period, managing our budget conservatively as we work to help all of Tennessee recover from this unprecedented economy.”
As previously noted last month, the Tennessee Department of Revenue extended the due date for certain taxes on April 6, 2020 and the extensions can be found on their website at https://www.tn.gov/revenue/news/2020/3/31/tennessee-extends-certain-tax-deadlines-due-to-covid-19.html.
