News release: “States’ tax collections have been growing for nearly three years now, but the recovery in state tax revenues is much slower after the Great Recession than after previous recessions, according to the latest State Revenue Report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government. State tax revenues were up 2.7 percent for the third quarter of 2012 compared to the same period of 2011, according to the report by Lucy Dadayan and Donald J. Boyd. The Southwest and Rocky Mountain states showed the largest total tax revenue gains in the third quarter of 2012. However, tax revenues in most of the Southwest and Rocky Mountain states are still below the peak levels attained just after the start of the recession. At the end of fiscal 2012, overall tax collections were 1.3 percent above the peak tax collections levels reported in fiscal 2008. However, after adjusting for inflation, state tax revenues in fiscal 2012 were 4.9 percent below the recessionary peak levels reported in fiscal 2008. The recovery has been particularly anemic for personal income tax collections. About two-thirds of all states with personal income taxes reported declines in personal income tax collections in fiscal 2012 compared to their peak levels.”