An article over at seeking alpha by Marvin Clark brings forth some rather scary facts:

“I’m bearish about 2010 because the latest report from the US Census (pdf) on state and Local Government taxes show the fourth consecutive quarter of receipts being down. Transactional taxes are the DNA of economic activity. Bulls argue that unemployment is a lagging indicator. Taxes are a leading indicator.
Percentage Change from 2008:3 to 2009:3 for Select State Government Tax Revenues:

Sales tax: –9.2%

Individual tax: –11.6%

Corporate tax: –23.2%

Severance tax: –63.3%

Stock transfer tax: –26.3%

From US Census:
“2009 Quarter 3 tax revenue for state and local governments, as compared with third quarter 2008 (2008:3), was down 6.7 percent, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of negative growth. Tax revenue for the quarter totaled $266.5 billion compared with $285.6 billion reported for third quarter 2008. Of the four largest tax categories only property tax increased; general sales tax, individual income tax, and corporate income tax all continued to decline in the third quarter of 2009.””

http://seekingalpha.com/article/180465-case-of-the-missing-tax-receipts

- papaswamp

Related Posts:

• I believe this is one of the most important lines in the report they released.
• Where do you look for what is really going on with sales? Denninger lays it out in simple terms.
• The debt spiral: The bond market could crash any time.
• Leave it to the WSJ to report the truth - and then try to paper over it:
• It takes years of deleveraging before jobs can come back.

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