By Jason Doyle Oden
The McCarville Report
For the first time since the later part of the Great Recession, Oklahoma’s 12-month gross receipts are less than the previous 12-month period. According to the Oklahoma Treasurer’s office September collections were down 4.6 percent year over year and a half percent below August collections.
This is the fifth month in a row total collections have slipped. Much of the blame can be laid at the feet of lower oil and natural gas prices. Over the past year, only two months saw increases in oil and gas production taxes.
“The state’s economy is clear showing the direct and indirect impact of low oil prices, with monthly gross production and sales taxes collections down,” said Treasurer Ken Miller. “Revenue growth from the past year has been erased and indications are the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.”
Gross production taxes are a lagging indicator of the state’s economy. For example, September’s gross production collections are from the oil field activity in July when the average price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was $50.90 a barrel. In August the average price was $42.87 while the average in September was $45.51. The impacts of those lower prices will be reflected in the gross production tax collections for October and November.
September gross collections were recorded at $1.04 billion down $50.02 million from September of last year. Gross income tax collections generated $438.36 million, a 3.1 percent increase over last year. Sales tax collections dropped 6.4 percent. The standout figure is gross production taxes on oil and natural gas. Receipts show collections generated $36.69 million last month. That’s a decrease of 52.9 percent from last September.
