Collections were off 18 percent, or 15 percent for the first four months of the fiscal year.
One group called for tax increases to prevent further cuts, but Mr. Perdue's staff said emergency action isn't needed.
Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said the governor already has cut $900 million from the budget he signed into law in April, so deeper cuts are not necessarily imminent. The numbers look bad, he said, because the drop in collections caused by the recession hadn't hit in October 2008.
Last October was essentially even with October 2007. Last November registered growth of 1.4 percent over the year before.
Monday's figures for October 2009 showed total collections are $831 million behind this point last year.
"Those numbers are startling, certainly. But it's important to remember that we're comparing against months before the real teeth of the recession hit," Mr. Brantley said.
Among the latest round of cuts was a three-day furlough and withholding 5 percent of the funds appropriated to all state agencies, except for 3 percent for education and health care.
"This is already a cut budget. The slices and dices to these agencies had already happened in the 2010 budget," Mr. Brantley said. "So these cuts were on top of the cuts that the Legislature had already done."
The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an independent think tank, said action is required and recommended taxes be raised to stave off further cuts.
"Georgia cannot cut its way to prosperity," the institute wrote in a statement. "The governor and General Assembly must look to raise revenues, as a majority of states have done, including a majority of our conservative Southern neighbors."
Lawmakers have rejected suggestions of raising taxes, arguing that would stifle job creation.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsboro, said any additional cuts required to balance the budget might not need to be drastic. The budget Mr. Perdue proposes in January for the next fiscal year could be more difficult.
Still, he sees some signs of economic improvement, such as production at the new Kia Motors plant in West Point and activity at the ports of Savannah and Brunswick.
"We're not a state that's headed in the wrong direction," he said. "We're trudging our way through this."
REVENUE CHANGES
Changes in some categories of Georgia tax revenue in October 2009, compared to October 2008:
Income tax: -15.5 percent
Net sales tax: -18.2 percent
Motor fuel tax: -14.2 percent
Corporate income tax: -120.8 percent
Tobacco tax: 3.5 percent
Alcohol tax: 6.2 percent
Source: Georgia Department of Revenue, www.etax.dor.ga.gov
