State tax revenue collections continue to fall short. For October 2009, collections were down 14 percent compared with October 2008, falling from $514.8 million to $442.7 million, according to State Budget Director Linda Luebbering. A spreadsheet detailing the most recent tax collections is available here.

State revenues collected from corporate income and franchise taxes, sales and use taxes, and individual income taxes were all down, by 26.2 percent, 24.4 percent, and 8.6 percent, respectively.

The declines are in addition to the already waning numbers that were seen in September, when the state made its first-quarter report for the fiscal year, and announced that total collections were down nearly 10 percent in comparison to the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. With the additional shortfall in October, total collections are now down 10.8 percent. The decline seen so far is much less rosy than the revenue projects used in the state budget, which anticipated a 1-percent growth in tax collections.

In response to the continued decline in state tax revenues, Gov. Jay Nixon made $200 million in budget cuts during late October, an amount that comes to about 1 percent of the state's total budget.

Contrary to the decreasing trend, tax collections from liquor sales were up 6.5 percent for October, and 7.6 percent for the year so far.

Andrew Guevara is a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia.