The state House and Senate Fiscal Agencies released their January revenue updates this week, which show Michigan brought in around 3-billion-dollars in revenue last month.
Jim Stansell is senior economist with the House Fiscal Agency. He says there’s not too much to worry about as lawmakers begin to write the state’s next budget.
“As far as the budget planning process goes forward, right now the revenue that we were projecting back in January after—you know we’re only about a month away—but at least we’re pretty much on track," Stansell said.
The state did issue more business tax refunds than expected in January. Economists say that might look like a hit to the state's revenue, but they expect it to even out as the year goes on.
"While we know that that will lower revenue by about $600 million over the course of the year, probably about half of it came in early on in the fiscal year," Stansell said. "And so, we won’t see as much later on."
Meanwhile, sales and use tax collection was strong. Stansell says that helped drive revenue for the School Aid Fund above expectations for last month.