Monday, July 11, 2011
Tulsa World, Okla.
Oklahoma Treasurer Ken Miller's smile was as wide as a billboard advertisement for toothpaste. He had a lot to beam about as he announced last month's revenue collections. Gross revenue collections for June were slightly more than $1 billion -- $134.5 million higher than a year ago.
That's 15.5 percent more than the same month last year, largely thanks to the oil and natural gas industry.
Gross production taxes on oil and gas generated $102.53 million, a whopping increase of 28.4 percent from June 2010. Current collections, however, reflect drilling activity from a few months ago when oil topped $100 a barrel. Prices since then have dropped, and Miller anticipates that gross production collections will go down in coming months.
But Miller isn't thinking about a half-empty barrel.
"Now entering the third year of the cyclical expansion, Oklahoma's double-digit revenue growth last month shows our state's economy is clearly regaining its strength while the national economy continues its rather anemic growth," Miller said.
Here's the evidence that Oklahoma's on a roll: Every major revenue category showed growth.
Miller, also an economist, recently pointed to the state's declining unemployment rate as another sign the Oklahoma economy is strongly on the rebound. Net income tax collections, which includes personal and corporate income taxes, brought in $373.98 million, an increase of 20.4 percent from the same time last year. Personal income tax collections were $283.86 million or a 14.5 percent increase; corporate collections were $90.12 million, a 44.1 percent increase. Sales tax collections, including remittances on behalf of cities and counties, totaled $322.69 million, or a 6.5 percent increase from June 2010. The latter is good news for struggling cities that rely almost entirely on sales-tax revenues to pay the bills.
The increased revenues unfortunately come too late to do much about the state budget that reflected deep cuts, particularly to public schools. Oklahomans can only hope that next year's budget can make up for lost ground.
Oklahoma doesn't always have a lot to brag about when it comes to robust economic figures. But the state is not a bottom-of-the-barreler this time around. Oklahoma is doing better than most of the rest of country when it comes to revenue collections.
The oil and gas industry should take a bow.
Copyright (c) 2011, Tulsa World, Okla.
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