Revenue Collections For FY '09 Register Sharp Fall

The revenue numbers for the fiscal year that ended in June show Massachusetts collected $2.6 billion, or 12.5 percent less revenue than it did in fiscal year 2008.

Capital gains taxes saw the largest drop, falling by $1.5 billion, or 75 percent.

Revenue Commissioner Navjeet Bal says that comes as no surprise. "The revenue decline that we saw in fiscal year '09 really reflected the economic crisis that we saw on the national and state level last year, in terms of the stock market fluctuations the credit market freeze and the general downturn in the economy," she said.

Corporate-tax collections fell by almost 18 percent, income-tax collections fell by more than 15 percent, while sales-tax revenue dropped by just over 5 percent.

The month of June didn't help the overall revenue picture; collections in the final month of the fiscal year fell by almost 21 percent, compared to the same time a year ago.