May 1 – Bloomberg (William Selway): “U.S. state sales-tax collections fell in the first quarter for the first time in six years as consumers curbed spending, dealing a blow to state finances from Rhode Island to California, a study found. Sales taxes fell in 21 of the 36 states that have reported collections for the first three months of 2008, according to the study by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York. Southeastern states were the hardest hit, the study found, because of the subprime mortgage market collapse. Overall revenue, including income taxes, rose 1.7%. ‘The widespread declines in the sales tax are a leading indicator of economic weakening, and a harbinger of further state budget troubles,’ Don Boyd, one of the study’s authors, said…”

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