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Public Information Office *Revised 4/21/99*
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Henry Wulf
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State Government Tax Collection Up 7 Percent,
Census Bureau Reports
State government tax revenues increased by 7 percent from 1997 to 1998,
according to tabulations released today by the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau.
The 1998 tax-collection tabulations show the population, tax
collections by category and per-capita tax collections for every state.
State governments collected $475 billion in tax revenues in 1998; in
1997, they came to $443 billion. Among major taxes, individual income tax
revenues rose the most (11 percent), followed by general sales (6 percent)
and motor fuels (4 percent). Severance taxes, reflecting mostly the
decline of fuel prices, dropped 14 percent from the previous year.
Alaska was the only state to show a tax revenue decrease 27 percent. The
states with the largest increases were Maine (17 percent), Connecticut (15
percent), Delaware (14 percent), Wyoming (13 percent) and Colorado (12
percent). The changes reflected economic conditions and alterations in the
tax structure or rates.
"Individual income taxes and general sales taxes continued to be the
mainstay of state government tax systems," said Henry Wulf a Census Bureau
analyst. "Together, these two tax categories contributed about 2 out of
every 3 tax dollars to state government coffers in fiscal 1998.
Individual income taxes constituted 34 percent of state taxes and general
sales taxes more than 32 percent."
The reliance that state governments put on different taxes varied
considerably. Several states, led by Georgia at 80 percent, obtained most
of their tax revenue just from individual income and general sales taxes.
Georgia was followed by Hawaii (79 percent), Utah (76 percent) and
Massachusetts (76 percent) in revenues from these taxes.
On the other hand, these two revenue sources accounted for less than 50
percent of state government taxes in six States North Dakota (45 percent),
Wyoming (39 percent), Delaware (38 percent), Montana (35 percent), New
Hampshire (7 percent) and Alaska (0.0 percent it imposes neither tax).
Explanations for this varied, but were rooted in state economies and the
historical development of each state's tax system.
Nationally, per capita tax collections by states were $1,762 for
every man, woman and child. However, there was quite a range among
individual states. For example, per capita taxes were the highest in
Connecticut ($2,869), Delaware ($2,665), Hawaii ($2,662), Minnesota
($2,434) and Massachusetts ($2,357). Wisconsin, Washington, California,
Michigan and New Mexico also had state government tax collections of over
$2,000 per capita.
The lowest per capita state taxes were in New Hampshire ($851), South
Dakota ($1,129), Texas ($1,246), Tennessee ($1,288) and Alabama ($1,318).
The data for these tabulations came from state government records.
Quality assurance methods were applied to all phases of data collection
and processing. However, as with all such tabulations, the data are
subject to nonsampling error, including errors of response and miscoding.
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The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely,
relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United
States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an
economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and
economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in
1790.
