Commissioner says November revenue up from October

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ? State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz said Friday that business tax collections improved in November over the previous month, pushing state tax revenues to $36.8 million more than the budgeted estimate.

Goetz said franchise and excise taxes combined were $31.1 million more than the estimate of $20.3 million.

However, he said it’s still too early to know franchise and excise collections because “most of our economic forecasts are calling for less growth as we round out this fiscal year.”

“While we’re comfortable at this point with F and E collections, the bulk of F and E revenue typically comes in April,” Goetz said.

Earlier this week, members of Tennessee’s funding board projected relatively strong revenue growth for the remainder of this fiscal year, but were more conservative for next year mainly because of the unpredictability of business taxes.

The board said revenue growth could be as much as 4.9 percent through June 30, while next year’s forecast is estimated to be about 4 percent.

On Friday, Goetz also announced that sales tax collections were $8.4 million less than last month’s estimate, but said gasoline and motor fuel collections increased by 3.26 percent and were $4.3 million more than the budgeted estimate of $72.4 million.