Mississippi revenues exceed estimates by $87 million in March

• The total year-to-date revenue collections for the Magnolia State in the current fiscal year is now nearly $179 million more than lawmakers anticipated.

Mississippi state revenues soared in March, coming in over $87 million above legislative revenue estimates for the month.

The March jump brings the state’s total revenue collections to date for the current fiscal year to $178.9 million above estimates with three months remaining in Fiscal Year 2024.

According to the Mississippi Legislative Budget Office (LBO), total state tax collections for March were $87,074,990 or 16.93% above the sine die revenue estimate, making the year-to-date revenue collections through March $178,944,639 or 3.51% higher than the estimated budget.

The increase in March also means the year-to-date collections are $1,572,990 or 0.03% above the prior year’s revenue collections.

The total state budget revenue estimate set during the 2023 legislative session was $7,523,800,000.

The March 2024 LBO report shows sales tax collections for the month were above the prior year by $6.4 million while corporate income tax collections were also up over the prior year by $20.5 million.

Individual income tax collections for the month of March 2024, which have lagged in previous months this fiscal year due to the implementation of the 2022 income tax cut, were above the prior year by $7.6 million.

The charts below, provided by the LBO, show the revenue collection trends in Mississippi over the last 10 fiscal years, dating back to 2014. Overall, the state’s total revenue collections have grown over $2 billion in the past decade.

Lawmakers are currently considering the 2025 Fiscal Year state budget as the 2024 legislative session winds down. Magnolia Tribune will have more on that process and the final state budget numbers as they are made available in the coming weeks.