State tax revenues for all 50 states totaled $146.6 billion in the first quarter of 2006, up 6.8 percent from the same period in 2005, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. However, after adjusting for inflation and tax law changes, growth was only 0.3 percent.But the institute said that that result is misleading. "Nominal growth was greatly affected by last year's corporate tax amnesty in California," said deputy director Brian Stenson. "After adjusting for the sharp falloff in California's corporate income tax collections because of this amnesty, tax revenue actually showed strong growth of 8.9 percent this quarter." Revenue growth was strongest in the West (13 percent, after the amnesty adjustment) and weakest in the Great Lakes region (5 percent).
A copy of the full report, "State Revenue Report No. 64," is available on the institute's Web site, http://rfs.rockinst.org.
