Oklahoma revenue beats estimate for first time since July

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma’s secretary of finance says collections to Oklahoma’s principal operating fund last month exceeded estimates for the first time since last July.

Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger said Tuesday that revenue collected by the general revenue fund in March totaled $394 million, $3 million above the estimate on which the state budget is based, but $30 million below March 2015 collections.

Income tax collections last month totaled $152 million, $19.2 million above estimate.

Collections for the first nine months of the fiscal year that ends June 30 were $3.7 billion, $323.8 million below the estimate and about $387 million below last year.

Low energy prices have caused collections to miss the estimate in all but one month this year, prompting a revenue failure in December that was deepened two months later.