U.S. states saw their tax revenue drop by about $31 billion, or 6 percent, from March through August, compared to the same period a year earlier, as the pandemic triggered economic shutdowns across the country, according to data from 44 states compiled by the Urban Institute.
The scale of the drop appears smaller than expected, relative to the depth of the economic contraction, and comes after several states have reported that their revenue didn’t decline as much as anticipated despite business shutdowns and increased unemployment. In August, when much of the country was reopening, state revenue climbed about 1.1 percent from a year earlier, the Urban Institute found.
Bernie Dyme is president and CEO of Perspectives LTD, a behavioral health firm committed to delivering high-quality employee assistance programs, behavioral health, and organizational consulting services.
He is passionate about ending the stigma attached to mental health ensuring that everyone in companies has full access to mental health services and also focuses on prevention and early intervention. He is an active member of more than a dozen professional and community organizations that work toward his passion of bringing resources to all employees and organizations to ensure full access to help. These include the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), the Society of Human Resource Professionals (SHRM), and the Executives Club of Chicago. He is also the Chair of the Advisory Council of The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice at the University of Chicago. He is the past president of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and is currently an active member of the Board.
Bernie is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). He has his master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago.
Brandon Roberts is chief revenue officer, fitness & wellbeing for Xplor Technologies, a global platform for SMBs combining SaaS solutions with embedded payments and commerce accelerating technologies, where he leads a team of 200 commercial sales, account management and client service people across North America.
Before joining Xplor in 2020, Brandon spent eight years at Mindbody, ultimately as global director of operations. He has a B.S. in Kinesiology from California Polytechnic State University and a MBA from the University of Phoenix.
David Arkush is managing director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.
The tax figures come as Republicans in Washington balk at extending aid to states and cities to help cover budget deficits that are expected to continue as the coronavirus weighs on the economy. Experts say that states’ financial outlooks could worsen as the effects of the stimulus bill fade and high unemployment reduces tax bills next year.
The August increase should be viewed with caution since income-tax deadlines were pushed back to July, which could have resulted in some revenue being processed later, according to Lucy Dadayan, senior research associate with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Personal income-tax collections, which rose 3.8 percent in August, were in some cases supported by backlogged unemployment insurance benefits subject to withholding tax, Dadayan said.
Between March and August, tax revenues fell 6.4 percent year over year, with 36 states reporting declines over that period, the report said. Between March and August, eight states, including Washington and Georgia, reported growth in tax revenue.
“Due to the shifting in timing of tax receipts this past year, it is crucial to view August year-over-year revenue gains and fiscal year to date data with caution,” Dadayan said in the report.