PA Tax Revenues Slightly Off In November

Pennsylvania’s tax collections are still above estimates for the fiscal year, but the cushion has gotten smaller and smaller each month.
A better-than-expected September put tax collections 75 million dollars above the year-to-date estimate.
But revenue came in slightly below expectations in October and November, so now, tax income is just 14 million dollars above projections.
Revenue Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Brassell says for the most part, income is just what state officials expected it to be.

"The revenue collections every month except for September were within less than a half-percent of the estimates. And even in September we were only off by a couple percentage points. So I wouldn’t say that it’s a drastic above or below either way. We’re sort of trending right on where we thought we would be."

Pennsylvania is in a much better place than the last two Decembers. In 2009, revenue was already 217 million dollars below expectations, and in 2008, the state was 658 million dollars in the red.
Still, even if revenue finishes the year above projections, lawmakers will likely face a multi-billion dollar deficit, due to expiring stimulus dollars and other factors.