DOR: Cash collections grow slightly in FY ’16

FISCAL 2016 collections, through June, reached $3.65 billion, according to the R.I. Department of Revenue. This represents an increase of 0.5 percent over fiscal 2015. / COURTESY R.I. DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
FISCAL 2016 collections, through June, reached $3.65 billion, according to the R.I. Department of Revenue. This represents an increase of 0.5 percent over fiscal 2015. / COURTESY R.I. DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

PROVIDENCE – State general revenue collections crept up modestly in fiscal 2016, boosted by increases in revenue from income and sales taxes and user fees.
The fiscal 2016 collections, through June, reached $3.65 billion, according to the R.I. Department of Revenue. This represents an increase of 0.5 percent over fiscal 2015.
Among the largest gains: personal income taxes paid by public and private sector employees, which rose by $20.8 million, or by 1.7 percent.
Sales and use taxes rose by $13.6 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30. This, despite the repeal in 2016 of sales and use taxes on utilities paid by non-manufacturing businesses. The state estimated it gave up $24 million in sales and use taxes on those utilities.
In loss columns, lottery revenue fell by 3.1 percent, to $369.4 million, a decrease attributed to more competition for gambling dollars.
The state attributed the $11.7 million decrease over fiscal 2015 partly to increased casino competition in Massachusetts. Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, Mass., opened in June 2015 with 1,200 new slot machines, video poker and electronic table games.
Net revenue from video lottery games at Twin River Casino, in Lincoln, fell $17 million in fiscal 2016, but was offset partly by a 2 percent in increased revenue at Newport Grand casino from the same type of games.
In all, net gaming revenue from traditional table games at Twin River rose $2.3 million, or by 18 percent. A new poker room at the northern Rhode Island casino, for example, generated $540,089 in state revenues last fiscal year.
In other Department of Revenue breakouts:
Taxes on cigarettes and alcohol sales rose by 4.7 percent and 4.4 percent respectively. Cigarette taxes generated $144 million in the year that ended in June, including $756,296 in a one-time floor stock tax. Actual sales of cigarettes decreased by 2 percent last year.
Fees from red light camera violations fell precipitously, to $42,988 in collections forwarded from participating towns and cities. In the previous fiscal year, $381,195 was collected. The change was attributed to a new law that allows towns and cities to keep the citation revenue.
And the Providence Place mall ended the fiscal year with a decrease in its sales tax collections. The mall collected a little more than $14 million in sales tax through June, a decrease of about 1 percent, according to the state report.

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