Public Information Office CB00-168
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e-mail: pio@census.gov
William Kehm
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State Government Tax Collections
Up 5 Percent, Census Bureau Reports
State government tax revenues increased 5 percent from 1998 to 1999,
according to tabulations released today by the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau.
The 1999 tabulations show population, tax collections by category and
per-capita taxes collected for every state.
State governments collected $500 billion in tax revenues in 1999; in
1998, revenues came to $474 billion. Among major taxes, individual income
tax revenues rose the most (7 percent), followed by general sales
(5 percent) and motor fuels (3 percent).
Six states showed tax revenue decreases: Alaska (down 31 percent),
Wyoming (down 5 percent), New Mexico (down 3 percent), Kansas (down
2 percent), Louisiana and Hawaii (down less than 1 percent each). The
states with the largest increases in tax collections were Arkansas (up
12 percent), Nevada, Michigan and Virginia (up about 9 percent each) and
Arizona (up 8 percent). The changes reflect changing economic conditions
or alterations in the tax structure or rates, or both.
State governments' reliance on specific taxes varied considerably.
Several states obtained most of their tax revenue from individual income
and general sales taxes. Hawaii led this group with 79 percent, followed
by Georgia (78 percent), Utah (76 percent) and Nebraska (75 percent).
On the other hand, these two revenue sources accounted for less than
50 percent of state government taxes in eight states Texas (49 percent),
Nevada (48 percent), North Dakota (44 percent), Wyoming (41 percent),
Delaware (38 percent), Montana (35 percent), New Hampshire (6 percent) and
Alaska, which did not impose either tax.
Nationally, per-capita taxes collected by states were $1,835 for every
man, woman and child. However, the range varied among individual states.
For example, per-capita taxes were highest in Connecticut ($2,932),
Delaware ($2,695), Hawaii ($2,671), Minnesota ($2,614) and Massachusetts
($2,386). Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Washington, New York, New
Jersey, Maine and New Mexico also had state government tax collections of
more than $2,000 per capita.
The lowest per-capita state taxes were in New Hampshire ($891), South
Dakota ($1,185), Texas ($1,281), Tennessee ($1,311) and Louisiana
($1,380).
The data used in the tabulations came from state government records.
Although quality assurance methods were applied to all phases of data
collection and processing, the data are subject to nonsampling error,
including errors of response and miscoding.
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