State Tax Revenues Fall Furthest in the West

State tax revenues declined by nearly 11 percent over all in the third quarter of 2009, the third consecutive quarter of double-digit declines, according to a report released today by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York at Albany. But states in the Western half of the United States fell further into the red than the rest of the country, with likely implications for higher education and other recipients of state funds. Total tax revenues fell more than 19 percent in the Southwestern states of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas in the quarter that ended in September. The 11 states in the Southeast had the smallest total decline in tax revenues, 7.5 percent, over that period.