Money, money everywhere

From the Birmingham News today:

MONTGOMERY - State tax collections continued their rapid growth in Alabama's budget year that ended Saturday, according to state finance department reports released Tuesday.

Tax collections and other revenue for Alabama's Education Trust Fund, which supports public schools and colleges, totaled $5.495 billion in the 2005-06 budget year, an increase of $527.3 million, or 10.6 percent, from the year before.

The state General Fund, for noneducation state agencies, grew by an even faster rate, increasing 13.7 percent to a total of $1.6 billion in 2005-06.

Much of the Education Trust Fund's growth came from increases in income tax and sales tax collections. ...

The trust fund gets about 87 percent of its money from state income tax and sales tax collections.

Combined personal and corporate state income tax collections totaled $3.17 billion in the 2005-06 budget year, an increase of $341.1 million, or 12 percent, from the year before.

State sales tax collections for the trust fund totaled $1.61 billion in 2005-06, an increase of $110.0 million, or 7.3 percent, from the year before.