Today, Governor Bob McDonnell announced that revenue collections were up by 9.5 percent over the previous year. This has marked consecutive revenue growth over the course of nine months from the previous year. Click here for the revenue report.
Most of this revenue growth was caused by withholding corporate income and sales tax collections. This was adjusted for an accelerated sales tax program, and total state revenues grew 4.1 percent through December.
McDonnell said:
“In a tough economy we are beginning to see real signs of progress and recovery. We have added 67,900 net new jobs in the Commonwealth since last February, the third greatest amount nationally. We have just posted two months of back to back 9% revenue growth, in the midst of a string of nine out of the last ten months featuring increases in state revenue. These are positive demonstrations of economic progress. However, this is still a difficult and uncertain economy. Over 280,000 Virginians are still unemployed. Clearly there is much more work to be done before all Virginians can find the good work they deserve. That is why we are focused this session of the General Assembly on utilizing savings and reprioritizations in our state budget to invest in job-creating core functions of government like higher education, economic development, transportation and government reform. Progress is being made, but we still have a long ways to go before economic prosperity and vitality have truly returned to every corner of the Commonwealth.”
This is good news compared to other states with major budget gaps. This is another positive sign for Virginia’s economic climate.
