State budget analysts say Arizona’s current fiscal year is getting off to a slow start.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee staff said revenue collections in July and August this year were about the same as last year, with a growth rate of just three-tenths of a percent.
The $640 million the state collected in August, was about $25 million below the projection for the month. That made August the 5th month in a row in which revenues have failed to meet the projections used to put the state budget together last spring.
The analysts say the primary cause of the weak August collections was another slow month of income tax withholding. They say sales tax collections grew during August, by a moderate 4.5 percent.