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• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Brief article

After several years of steep declines, state revenues are starting to pick up. In some states this means the rate of decline has slowed, but in others, revenues are actually increasing in one or more tax categories. Although still well below peak levels, nearly every state forecast has FY 2011 revenues exceeding last year's.

A year ago, more than half the states expected FY 2010 collections to be lower than FY 2009 amounts. This year, however, 40 states expect total tax collections in FY 2011 to be higher than they were in FY 2010. In 17 states, tax collections are expected to grow at least 5 percent. Three of these states expect collections to rise more than 10 percent: Colorado (10.8 percent), Oregon (12.1...