After two fiscal years of lower-than-projected revenue collections, the first two months of the current fiscal year are off to a great start.

To date, the state has collected $53 million more than expected to this point. Collections are up 8 percent more than this point last fiscal year.

The numbers through the first two months are padded by individual income tax collections – 9.5 percent more than expected to date. Last year, individual income tax collections greatly missed projections, falling $104.8 million short for the year.

Corporate income tax, a line item that includes the corporate franchise tax that will be gradually phased out over the next 10 fiscal years, are $7 million short of projections to this point in the fiscal year.

Gov. Phil Bryant took to Twitter on Friday, calling the collections “a very good trend.”

Legislative budget officials and Department of Revenue officials announced a new format last week for presentation of monthly revenue figures. The new figures include information from the Department of Revenue, the Department of Finance and Administration and the Legislative Budget Office.

Previously, government observers relied on three different reports from the three agencies. The new format, officials said, corrals information from all three agencies into an easier-to-read bulletin.

The first new bulletin, compiled for the month of August, can be found here.

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Adam Ganucheau, as Mississippi Today's editor-in-chief, oversees the newsroom and works with the editorial team to fulfill our mission of producing high-quality journalism in the public interest. Adam has covered politics and state government for Mississippi Today since February 2016. A native of Hazlehurst, Adam has worked as a staff reporter for AL.com, The Birmingham News and The Clarion-Ledger and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Adam earned his bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Mississippi.