Pennsylvania August Revenues Come in a Bit Short

The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue released the preliminary collections report for August – the state collected just over $1.6 billion, $19 million (or 1%) below estimate.

The consensus projection is 0-growth in revenue from last year, and it is still too early to evaluate this.  While both July and August were down slightly from last year, neither is a big collection month (September is), and the economy didn’t really bottom out until last October. 

As mentioned here before, we probably can’t make a good re-evaluation on revenue expectations until October or November – which may be about the time we actually get a state budget.