March revenues

[Carolyn Branagan]

March revenue figures are in. You'll remember that the legislature prepares the annual budget based on estimates of monthly revenue. The estimates are created from all sorts of data and we try to be as accurate as possible,  but the recession has made the predicting of tax revenue very difficult and at the end of the month, when it is time to compare estimates to actual money received, I always hold my breath.

I am pleased to report that the General Fund has made a huge jump in revenue. The state ended the month of February $4.3 million below estimates, but somehow managed to bring in enough revenue in the last few weeks so that we ended the month of March $1.7 million ahead. That means we took in about $6 million during the last month above what we predicted. That's a huge amount of money
 
Why/how did this happen? Withholding was up $2.5 million, refunds owed by the state were much less than estimated and the Estate Tax continues to climb.
 
The Transportation Fund is down slightly because of the increasing price of gasoline. The Education Fund holds its own. There does not seem to be an underlying trend that should cause money committees to be less cautious in spending. It is too early to say money is loosening up, but this past month was definitely better than we have seen in a long time.

Lots of good forces are at work to make the fiscal picture a little brighter as we enter the third quarter of the fiscal year. Contact me at cranking@leg.state.vt.us for more information.
 
Representative Carolyn Branagan
Franklin-1, Fairfax/Georgia
Vermont House of Representatives

[rod anode]

your email? cranking @ leg is that like being on the rack of old time,and they didnt pay their taxes so they started cranking until they got their tax dollars?maybe thats where the term stretching a dollar came from

[Carolyn Branagan]

So, in this job it pays to keep a sense of humor....... I wrote this messsage on March revenue from the statehouse, where the computer thinks it knows more than I do. It tries to correct spelling when it thinks I have made a mistake. For some reason it corrected the spelling in my e-mail address. I have no idea why the computer thought it needed to correct my address, but anyway my correct e-mail address is:  cbranagan@leg.state.vt.us 
I'll type it again to make sure:   cbranagan@leg.state.vt.us
If for some reason this doesn't work, feel free to call me at home 527-7694. But please don't call after 9pm at  night, it wakes up my husband.
I really do want to hear from Georgia/Fairfax folks because I can't be your representative unless I know what  you are thinking.  I also want to hear  from Ed, even though he lives in Fletcher.   

Carolyn B.

[Carolyn Branagan]

I'm glad someone reads my messages, someone besides the computer! 

C.

[rod anode]

that s funny.............you want to hear from me but my reps dont want to hear from me ...i wonder why???