SPECIAL NOTICE TO QBR USERS
                                 
      Changes to the Composition of Gross Income for Table 1

Effective with the Quarter 1, 1995 edition of this
publication, Table 1, “Total Gross Business Income,” has been
adjusted to eliminate double counting of gross business income
and more accurately reflect the true level of gross income
activity.  Therefore, gross income data shown in Table 1 of
this report will not be directly comparable to gross income in
Table 1 for earlier publications of the QBR.  (The Quarter 3,
1994 data in Table 1 of this edition has been adjusted so that
the year-to-year change is accurate.)

In recent years, a number of new tax lines were added to the
excise tax return for special purpose taxes, including, but
not limited to: solid waste tax, refuse collection tax,
petroleum tax, and hazardous substance tax.  In most
instances, these taxes resulted in double counting of gross
income data from businesses reporting on these new tax lines.
During the period June 1986 through July 1989, six new tax
lines were added that resulted in double counting of some
business income.

Additionally, Table 1 has always included use tax in gross
income data which resulted in double counting when such
purchases were subject to both Business and Occupation (B&O)
tax and use tax (use tax is an in-lieu sales tax when sales
tax was not collected on the original sale).  In order to
eliminate such instances of double counting, all use tax data
has now been eliminated from gross business income shown in
Table 1.

Because of the changes made to gross income data published for
1995, we will republish Table 1 on a calendar year basis for the
years 1988-1994 when Table 1 for calendar year 1995 is published.
Table 1 for those earlier years will be available on a request
basis.  Years prior to 1988 are not directly comparable to later
years due to the 1987 SIC code revisions.  However, most of the new
tax lines that caused the double counting problem were not in
existence in 1987 and earlier years; thus year-to-year comparisons
for years prior to 1988 can be made to later years using the new
tax base if SIC revisions do not skew the SIC category in question.

For analytical purposes, gross business income shown in Table 1 is
now comprised of the retail sales tax line, all public utility tax
lines and all B&O tax lines except retailing.