Fiscal Year Ends: Overall Revenues Up, Energy Taxes Still Sliding

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Oklahoma State Treasurer

Tax revenues are up overall, but Oklahoma is seeing a decline in revenues from oil and natural gas.

Fiscal year 2012 has ended, and Oklahoma finished “well into the black,” State Treasurer Ken Miller said in a statement with his monthly revenue report.

Revenue wise, things look good. Total revenue collections are up more than 7 percent from FY 2011, which means the state collected about $782 million more than it did last year.

But revenues from gross production taxes on oil and natural gas fell dramatically in June: 42 percent from June 2011, Miller says. The decline in revenues from energy taxes pushed down the overall monthly total, which was slightly lower in June 2012 than it was in June 2011.

The slip is the result of low natural gas and oil prices, which are “less than optimal” for Oklahoma, Miller said.

Low natural gas prices forced many energy companies to shift production to oil, which traded at more than $100 per-barrel from January 2012 to May 2012, when the monthly average of West Texas Intermediate dropped to $94.51. Miller said the June average was less than $83 per-barrel, which marks the seventh consecutive month of declining tax revenues from oil and gas.

Still, Miller said there are “many reasons to remain optimistic about the state economy.”

Year-end totals for income tax, sales tax and motor vehicle taxes each improved from FY 2011 to FY 2012. Income tax collections were most robust, increasing more than 10 percent.