Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday got to announce some good news about Georgia’s economic and fiscal health on election eve: a solid increase in income and sales tax collections for October.
Overall state tax collections were up 8.6 percent in October, or about $140 million, Deal said. For the fiscal year that began July 1, they are up 4.8 percent.
Typically, state officials see rising income and sales tax collections as a sign that the economy is doing well because it can mean Georgians are earning and spending more.
State income tax collections were up 10.1 percent in October, and the net take from the sales tax was up 4 percent.
Fuel tax collections were also up almost 4 percent for the month.
The tax take fuels the state's nearly $23.7 billion budget, which helps pay to educate more than 2 million students, to supply more than 2 million Georgians with health care, and to fund a host of other things, including the state patrol, parks, prisons and road construction.
This year’s state spending plan is predicated on a 3.9 percent rate of revenue growth through June 30.
While Deal has asked state agencies to hold the line on spending again this year, most of the fiscal news for the state has been relatively good in recent months.
His administration announced in September that the state's reserves had hit $2 billion. One of Deal's top priorities has been to leave office in 2019 with at least $2 billion in the state's savings account, and the state hit that mark more than two years early.
The governor announced last month that the state had maintained its AAA bond rating — which allows it to borrow at low rates — and saved $152 million on some of its debt that it refinanced.
