NY State Revenue Dropped 68% in April

According to the monthly cash report released by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, significant revenue declines occurred for New York in April as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the three month extension of the state income tax filing deadline. All governmental funds monthly tax receipts totaled just $3.7 billion, falling $7.9 billion or 68.4 percent from April 2019.

“New York is facing economic devastation not seen since the Great Depression,” DiNapoli said. “New York and other hard-hit states need the federal government to step up and provide assistance, or the state will have to take draconian actions to balance its budget. We need Washington to set aside the partisan bickering and deliver substantial relief to New Yorkers now.”

The 2020-21 Enacted Budget provides the Executive broad authority to reduce most local assistance and state agency spending in order to maintain budget balance. The budget is deemed out of balance if actual tax receipts are less than 99 percent of estimated tax receipts, or actual disbursements are more than 101 percent of estimated disbursements, as measured at three points during the year (April 1-30, May 1-June 30, and July 1-December 31).

The April measurement period uses the amended Executive Budget estimates for comparison, and is on a State Operating Funds basis (which differs slightly from the all funds figure above), as shown below:

The state’s current Financial Plan assumed the budget would be out of balance when the April measurement period was completed. Now that April numbers are final, the state Division of the Budget may propose spending reductions or other options.

Other items of note in the report:

• On an all governmental funds basis, PIT collections were more than $7 billion lower than in April 2019, primarily due to the postponement of the filing deadline for tax returns. Sales tax collections reflected the significant economic impact from the pandemic, with April receipts $332 million below what they were a year ago.
• The General Fund ended April with a balance of $10.1 billion, $1.3 billion above Enacted Budget projections.