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Published Tuesday, March 09, 2010 in Local

Georgia revenue numbers down in February

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

Georgia's tax collection numbers for February were released Monday, and the news wasn't good.

February revenue figures are down 9.9 percent from February 2009. That 9.9 percent equates to $62,197,000.

So far in fiscal year 2010, which began July 1, total state revenues are down 12.7 percent from the year before.

At the end of January, the year-to-date reduction was 12.9 percent. At the end of December, it was 13.7 percent.

The announcement comes as the members of the Georgia General Assembly return to session after a two-week recess to concentrate on the mammoth task of crafting a balanced budget for fiscal year 2011.

The amended budget for 2010, which covers the period from now until June 31, has been sitting in a conference committee, waiting on the numbers.

Both the House and Senate have already approved a version of the amended budget. But January's revenue numbers were down enough that legislators had doubts that the tax revenues for the rest of this fiscal year would meet Gov. Sonny Perdue's projections, so they waited until the February numbers were out.

February is always the lowest month for tax collections, said State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg. Seabaugh is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and chairman of the Fiscal Management Subcommittee of Senate Appropriations.

"So whether we were up or down in terms of actual dollars, it wouldn't have that much impact" on the revenue picture, Seabaugh said.

However, "we can't wait until the March revenue numbers, because that gives us even less time to act. So we've got to go on the best guess that we can in developing our budget for 2010 and for 2011."

The legislators now have to wait and see if Gov. Sonny Perdue will lower his revenue estimate for 2010 and 2011. The budget that the legislature crafts is based on the amount of money that the governor estimates will come in.

If the 2010 revenue estimate isn't lowered, or the 2010 amended budget isn't cut more, it will likely have to be balanced with federal stimulus dollars that were going to be used to balance the 2011 budget.

"For me, personally, I think that we need to prepare for the worst -- and we need to be fiscally and morally responsible in doing that," Seabaugh said. "Because to spend money on programs now that we are going to have to cut a year from now" is not a very good way to do things, he said.

The legislators are talking with economic advisors about the 2011 revenue estimate. "I'm not an economist. All I have out there is a gut reaction," Seabaugh said.

"I think that we ought to get as much information as we can and take almost a worst-case-scenario and work off that worst-case-scenario so that we can be able to utilize our resources the best we can," he said.

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