Total monthly revenue for December down 3.1 percent

COLUMBIA, SC – January 11, 2010 – State revenues for December 2009 were down 3.1 percent compared with the previous December.

Revenues for the state during December 2009 were $661,046,001, a decrease of $21,441,934 from December 2008 revenues of $682,487,935.

December 2009 sales tax revenue was down 5.2 percent from December 2008 – from $174,049,009 to $164,969,902. The drop in sales tax revenue was softened because there were four post-Thanksgiving shopping days in November 2009 compared with only three in November 2008. (December’s sales tax revenue reflects sales taxes collected on November sales, reported on December sales tax returns.)

Year-to-date revenue:

Year-to-date (July 1 – Dec. 31), total state revenue is down 5.8 percent. Revenue from all sources fell $187,241,148 (from $3,244,218,283 in 2008 to $3,056,977,135 in 2009) from the same period the previous year.

Year-to-date, corporate income taxes declined 51.6 percent (from $69,380,323 in 2008 to $33,572,881 in 2009),  sales tax revenue was down 5.1 percent (from $938,375,328 to $890,514,620) , and individual income taxes declined 3.7 percent (from $1,896,430,267 in 2008 to $1,826,540,673 in 2009).