State tax collections up, feds say

Washington collected more tax money in the third quarter of 2010 than in the same period in 2009, but less than the three previous years, the federal government said this week.

In figures that may show an easing of the recession, money collected for sales taxes rose about 4.5 percent in the span covering July, August and September compared with the same period in 2009, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The state also collected more money from booze, cigarettes and gasoline sales than the previous year, with money from alcohol taxes hitting a five-year high for that period.

Because the numbers come from Census Bureau estimates rather than actual tax collection data, Washington state officials were leery Thursday about making too much of them.

“Things are improving, but slowly,” said a spokeswoman for Washington’s chief economic forecaster Arun Raha.

Washington state tax collections “bottomed out” in November 2009, said Mike Gowrylow, a spokesman for the state Department of Revenue, so some level of improvement is expected. The Legislature approved new taxes and tax increases last spring that would help boost totals in the third quarter, but the fourth quarter may see a drop-off because voters on Nov. 2 repealed some of them.

“The bottom line is, yeah, things are improving, but the numbers are still a little murky,” Gowrylow said.

Federal numbers show a drop of about 10 percent in property tax collections, which is hard to interpret, Gowrylow said, because most property taxes are collected at the end of April and the end of October. The bureau usually revises its numbers several times when it gets better data, and the property tax figures will likely increase, he said.

“The one thing to keep in mind is this is preliminary. But on the other hand, it’s not unexpected,” he said.

Washington collected some $4.63 billion in taxes in July, August and September, the Census Bureau estimated, up about $110 million from the same period in 2009.

The state saw an increase of about 4.5 percent in sales and gross receipts taxes, the bureau estimated, after experiencing a significant drop in that category in the third quarter of 2009. It also collected about $23 million more from taxes on gasoline and other motor fuels after a drop the previous summer. That could be a result of more people driving for vacations after 2009’s summer of “staycations.”

Washington state nearly doubled its third-quarter take from gambling taxes over the past five years, to more than $900 million from about $551 million in that period of 2006.

Money the state makes from alcohol taxes also has increased steadily over the past five years, to about $53.8 million in the third quarter of 2010 from about $47 million in that period of 2006.

Tobacco tax collections were up nearly $9 million, to $117 million over the third quarter of 2009. Part of the increase likely comes from an extra $1 per pack tax on cigarettes and other tobacco taxes put in place in the spring.