Virginia tax receipts up 8.9% in fiscal year, eclipsing 7.1% forecast.

WASHINGTON -- Virginia finished fiscal 1993 on June 30 with $103 million more in tax collections than officials had expected, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder said yesterday.

The tax receipts reflect revenue growth of 8.9% over fiscal 1992 levels, compared with an official forecast of 7.1%.

Wilder said the preliminary fiscal 1993 results are "good news for Virginia's taxpayers" because they affirm "that Virginia's economy is recovering from the recession in line with the economic assumptions we adopted last December."

State officials have assumed that Virginia's economy would recover more slowly than it has historically because of contractions in the defense sector, surpluses in the commercial real estate market, and layoffs in the manufacturing sector.

Paul W. Timmreck, the state's finance secretary, said the better-than-forecast revenue showing was attributable largely to nonrecurring corporate tax payments received in April.

"If you take out the corporate payments, the official forecast [for revenue growth] is very, very good," Timmreck said.

About $79.6 million of the receipts in excess of the official forecast will be put in a constitutionally mandated rainy-day fund. State voters last November approved a constitutional amendment setting up a permanent revenue-stabilization fund.

Previously, the state was required to spend money in the budget period during which it was received. Now, when tax collections grow at above average rates, the state constitution requires at least one-half of the amount of growth that is determined to be above average to be deposited into the rainy-day fund.

The 8.9% increase in general fund revenues for fiscal 1993 compares with just 2.8% growth in fiscal 1992. In fiscal 1991, general fund revenues declined 0.4%, while they grew just 0.2% in fiscal 1990.

Wilder is scheduled to provide a full briefing on the state's economic situation to members of the General Assembly's money committees on Aug. 23.

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