WASHINGTON — State governments have seen tax revenues grow for a fourth consecutive year, led by rebounding sales taxes and a booming oil economy. But some budget experts worry that growth isn’t rebounding fast enough to cover rapidly rising costs associated with health care and pensions.

The Census Bureau reported state governments took in $865.8 billion in 2014, an increase of 2.2 percent over the previous year.

Sales tax revenues, which rose 4.8 percent to $271 billion, accounted for most of the overall growth. Taxes on oil and motor vehicles also rose by a little more than $1 billion each, though those taxes make up only a small percentage of overall collections.

Income taxes continue to make up the largest percentage of overall state budgets. The 46 states that levy an income tax collected $357 billion, or about 45 percent of the revenue those states generated. (The remaining four states, Nevada, Washington, Texas and Wyoming, rely more heavily on sales taxes to fund government.) Income tax receipts grew by less than half of one percent.

Bob Williams, president of State Budget Solutions, a nonpartisan group that analyzes state fiscal health, said the growth shows states are still struggling to recover from the recession.

“The 2 percent increase in total tax revenues from the previous year shows a lot of work needs to be done to improve the economies in the various states,” Williams said in an e-mail. “The rising cost of pensions, retiree health care and Medicaid will crowd out other essential services if we don’t see job and wage growth soon.”


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