LITTLE ROCK—State revenues in May were down $23.1 million from a year ago, a 5.6 percent drop, but still $3.6 million above forecast, Arkansas fiscal officials reported Tuesday.

The monthly total came to $385.6 million, or 1 percent above the state’s May 7 forecast.

The figures were consistent with the revised numbers last month, but would have been below forecast by about $19 million if the numbers had not been recalculated, said Richard Weiss, director of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.

“We are forecasting close to the mark,” Weiss said.

For the year, net available revenues came to $4.04 billion, a $30.4 million increase or 0.8 percent from a year ago. The year-to-date figure amounted to $12 million, or 0.3 percent, above forecast.

In May, the individual and corporate income tax collections were lower than the monthly totals a year ago, as were sales and use tax collections. Income tax and sales tax collections came in above forecast, however, while corporate income tax collections were well below both last year’s total and the revised forecast.

In corporate tax collections, the total last month came to $3.9 million, a decrease of $16.2 million or 80.5 percent below the total a year ago. The May figure was $18.3 million, or 82.4 percent, below forecast.

John Shelnutt of the department’s Economic Analysis & Tax Research office explained in a written monthly revenue report that corporations make estimated income tax payments during their fiscal year to cover the companies’ year-end liability. Shelnutt said the estimated payments tend to “fluctuate widely.”

“It is undetermined at this point if this is a time issue or a true representation of year-end total collections,” Shelnutt said.

Weiss said the agency expected to see a drop in the corporate figures and would look for the numbers to rise.

“I don’t think it reflects anything underlying in this economy,” he said. “To us, it’s not a cause for alarm. We expected to have a drop in estimates.”

The state collected $184.8 million in individual income taxes in May, down by $6.6 million or 3.4 percent, from a year ago. The total was $11.5 million, or 6.7 percent, above forecast.

Year-to-date individual income tax collections came to $2.5 billion, a $197.2 million increase over last year’s figure, for an 8.6 percent jump. The yearly figure was $11.6 million or 0.5 percent above forecast.