“Tax data tend to be noisy and require careful interpretation. This is particularly true of data for the October-December quarter, the focus of most of this report. While we report data from the Census Bureau in Tables 8, 9, 10, and 11, throughout much of the discussion that follows we describe tax revenue growth or declines after reflecting adjustments that we believe are essential for proper interpretation. Since early data from the first quarter of 2009 indicate widespread declines in revenue, we also provide an initial look at currently available reports, which represent tax revenue data for 41 states for the January and February months.”

Published on April 2009