Revenues In Oklahoma Decline

Oklahoma’s secretary of finance says state income tax refunds and a drop in natural gas production reduced general revenue fund receipts last month.

Secretary of Finance and Revenue Preston Doerflinger said Tuesday that collections totaled about $255 million in February. That’s almost $29 million below collections in February 2012 and $20 million lower than the official estimate upon which this year’s budget is based.

But Doerflinger says sales tax collections rose in February. Collections increased by 4.5 percent over the same month a year ago and are up 6.5 percent over the first eight months of the fiscal year that began on July 1.

Collections for the first eight months of the fiscal year are $3.5 billion, which is about $29 million below the same period one year ago.