May 2022 General Fund revenues remain strong for Virginia

RICHMOND, VA – Governor Glenn Youngkin today announced that revenue collections for the Commonwealth’s general fund remained strong, rising 9.9 percent in May compared with May of last year. On a fiscal year-to-date basis, total revenue collections have risen 17.8 percent.

“This report confirms that the time is now to deliver meaningful tax cuts to Virginia families who are getting crushed by five-dollar gas and record-high inflation,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “While Virginia was nearly last place in recovering from the pandemic, my administration remains laser-focused on job creation, and I’m so pleased we’re now in the top third among states for job growth this year, adding more than 60,000 jobs since the beginning of my administration. We still have much more work to do but I’m encouraged by our growing labor force, increasing wages, and the fundamental strength in Virginia’s economy.”

“Because of last year’s federal tax filing deadline that moved from April to May in 2021, we have to consider April and May collections together when compared to last year,” said Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings. “On a combined basis, April and May revenues in 2022 grew 27.3 percent versus the same period last year, reflecting better than expected final income tax payments and lower than expected individual income tax refunds. Growth in payroll withholding and sales tax collections also showed strong year-over-year gains for the month, indicative of continuing employment and wage growth in Virginia.”

For the month, payroll withholding increased by 12.9 percent. A strong labor market, which has produced 61,000 jobs in the three months since January, drove growth in payroll withholding. There were 113,000 more Virginians employed in April 2022 than there were in April 2021, an increase of 2.7 percent year-over-year. Although recent trends are encouraging, Virginia has yet to recover more than 151,000 jobs that were lost during the pandemic (now at 96.5 percent of pre-pandemic levels) while our key competitor states have all exceeded pre-pandemic employment levels. While the Commonwealth underperformed the nation in jobs recovered since the pandemic, ranking 47th overall, momentum is building and Virginia ranked 16th among the states in employment growth for the first four months of 2022.

The full May 2022 revenue report is available here.