Income Tax Revenue from Kent State Rose in 2012

Income tax revenue is trending up for the city of Kent, and that includes income taxes paid by employees at Kent State University's main campus.

The amount of revenue the city received from Kent State employees paying income taxes rose 4.5 percent in 2012 to $4.4 million, according to figures from the Kent Budget and Finance Department.

Kent collected about $190,000 more in income tax revenue from university employees in 2012 than the city did in 2011.

All total, employees at Kent State accounted for about 37 percent of the more than $12 million of income tax revenue collected by the city last year.

The rise in tax collections coincides with an increase in the number of employees at the Kent campus, which breaks down as follows by faculty, staff and administrators.

Source: Kent State University

Month-by-month, only four months in 2012 posted declines in income tax revenue from university employees compared with 2011. Several months showed double-digit increases over the prior year, including December, which saw a 17.5 percent increase from December 2011 to 2012, according to the budget and finance department.

Historically, Kent State has been a reliable source of growth for the city in terms of income tax revenue.

Since 2006 municipal income tax collections from university employees have risen every year except 2011. During that year, the university implemented a hiring freeze to balance cuts in state financial support for higher education.

The hiring freeze, which can be seen in the drop in the number of employees in the first chart, is reflected in the city's income tax collections from Kent State employees, which break down as follows since 2006:

Total Receipts from

Kent State Employees

Percent Change

Year Over Year

Source: city of Kent

The hiring freeze ended in April 2012. January, February and March of 2012 all posted lower income tax revenue numbers than their 2011 counterparts as the tail-end months of the hiring restriction period.