Pa.'s April tax collections lag by $477M

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s tax collections in April remain well behind projections with one day to go in an important revenue month.

The Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee said today the shortfall was $477 million, or 13 percent, mostly because of lagging personal income-tax collections.

That compounds a deficit that was about $170 million on April 1, creating another significant hurdle for Gov. Tom Corbett’s election-year budget.

The Rockefeller Institute of Government in New York suggests that states’ tax collections are lagging because taxpayers sold securities in 2012 to avoid higher federal tax rates on capital gains in 2013.

Corbett had been counting on robust tax collections, some one-time sources of cash and delaying pension and health care payments to pump hundreds of millions of additional dollars into public schools and social services.