U.S. states saw their tax revenue drop by about $31 billion, or 6 percent, from March through August, compared to the same period a year earlier, as the pandemic triggered economic shutdowns across the country, according to data from 44 states compiled by the Urban Institute.
The scale of the drop appears smaller than expected, relative to the depth of the economic contraction, and comes after several states have reported that their revenue didn’t decline as much as anticipated despite business shutdowns and increased unemployment. In August, when much of the country was reopening, state revenue climbed about 1.1 percent from a year earlier, the Urban Institute found.
Craig Kurtzweil is the chief data & analytics officer for UnitedHealthcare's commercial business. In this role, he leverages the nation's largest health care data set to identify and share insights that can help people and care providers make more informed health care decisions, make health care more affordable for everyone and improve outcomes. This includes exploring new ways to apply data through machine learning and artificial intelligence, creating the next generation of health care analytics and making data a differentiator in the marketplace for the company.
Craig joined UnitedHealthcare in 2005. Since then, he has focused on enhancing how data and analytics support UnitedHealthcare's largest employer customers. His team works with large and complex clients that require a broad view of data, ranging from cost and utilization to productivity and disability exposure. As part of this work, Craig formed the Center for Advanced Analytics to focus on analytic innovations that change the way we evaluate health care value.
Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare, Craig served as an actuarial consultant at Deloitte.
Trinity Davis, managing director at 360 Privacy, spent 18 years in protective services, focused in the UHNW private family office and tech sector.
He built and led cross-functional teams in executive protection, residential security, travel security management and protective intelligence, spending the last six years in Silicon Valley working in social media and fintech. He moved to 360 Privacy in 2022 to focus on educating the industry on digital executive protection and how physical threats begin in the digital landscape.
Brandon Milhorn has nearly three decades of advocacy, policy, legal and regulatory experience, primarily in and around Washington, D.C., including five years in critical senior leadership roles with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., seven years in the private sector with Raytheon and over a decade of public service as staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, as an attorney at the CIA and in two federal court clerkships.
The tax figures come as Republicans in Washington balk at extending aid to states and cities to help cover budget deficits that are expected to continue as the coronavirus weighs on the economy. Experts say that states’ financial outlooks could worsen as the effects of the stimulus bill fade and high unemployment reduces tax bills next year.
The August increase should be viewed with caution since income-tax deadlines were pushed back to July, which could have resulted in some revenue being processed later, according to Lucy Dadayan, senior research associate with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Personal income-tax collections, which rose 3.8 percent in August, were in some cases supported by backlogged unemployment insurance benefits subject to withholding tax, Dadayan said.
Between March and August, tax revenues fell 6.4 percent year over year, with 36 states reporting declines over that period, the report said. Between March and August, eight states, including Washington and Georgia, reported growth in tax revenue.
“Due to the shifting in timing of tax receipts this past year, it is crucial to view August year-over-year revenue gains and fiscal year to date data with caution,” Dadayan said in the report.