(The Center Square) – Kansas collected $626.8 million in taxes last month, Governor Laura Kelly's office announced Wednesday. 

Those collections are $18.9 million more than projected and more than $70 million more than the state collected in November 2020. 

Tax revenue estimates are generated by the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group, a statutory group of researchers, economists, and financial advisors who meet to evaluate the state’s financial health.

“While our state revenue numbers continue to be encouraging, maintaining fiscal responsibility is paramount moving forward,” Kelly said in a news release. “That’s how we will sustain strategic investments in critical state services – and how we will ‘Axe the Food Sales Tax’ long-term, providing much-needed relief to Kansas families.” 

According to the state’s tax receipts, individual income taxes totaled $288.9 million in November, which was 1.6% or $4.6 million below estimates. 

However, the state more than recovered those losses in income taxes from corporations and financial institutions. Corporations paid more than $13.7 million in taxes, which was 64.1% above estimates, while financial institutions paid $323,000, which is 147% more than the estimates. 

Kansas also collected more in cigarette, liquor, and gasoline taxes than it projected. Cigarette taxes came in at $10.3 million compared to estimates of $9.1 million. 

Kansas collected $2.2 million in taxes from liquor sold in retail locations and another $1.3 million from liquor sold at bars, restaurants, and other venues. 

The state also collected $1.7 million in gas severance taxes, a 17% increase when compared to the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group’s estimates.

Kelly is pushing to eliminate the state's 6.5% sales tax on food items to provide Kansas families relief.