State sales tax growth softens.

• Position: News & Numbers - Brief article

State tax revenue growth slowed in the third quarter of 2015. Year-over-year growth was just 3.8 percent, compared with second quarter growth of 6.9 percent and first quarter growth of 5.1 percent, according to the latest State Revenue Report of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York.

According to the study, states expect fiscal 2016 and 2017 to be much weaker than fiscal 2015. The median forecast for income tax growth in the 36 states for which the Rockefeller Institute was able to gather recent forecasts is 4.6 percent for 2016 and 4.4 percent for 2017, compared to the 7.8 percent actual growth reported for 2015. The median forecast for sales tax growth in these states is 3.5 percent for 2016 and 3.9 percent for 2017, down from actual 2015 growth of 4.5 percent.

Personal income tax revenue growth in the third quarter of 2015 slowed to 6.5 percent on a year-over-year basis, down from 14.4 percent growth in the second quarter of 2015. Thirty-four states reported...