Indiana has missed its budget goal for the ninth month out of the past 10 as tax collections for the month of April hit their lowest mark since 2004, the state announced Tuesday morning.

The state collected $1.4 billion in revenue in April, missing projections by 5 percent, the Indiana State Budget Agency said.

Through April, or the first 10 months of the state’s fiscal year, state revenue has come in $949 million below projections, a 10-percent shortfall that comes on the heels of a 7.4-percent gap a year ago.

The state collected $9.7 billion in revenue through the first ten months of the fiscal year and spent $10.3 billion, which has reduced reserves by $630 million, or roughly one-half of the $1.3 billion the state had at the beginning of the current two-year budget cycle.

“There’s no arguing with these numbers,” Gov. Mitch Daniels said in a prepared statement. “Without our actions to restrain spending, all of our reserves would be gone sometime this year and we’d be in the shape of most other states.”

Daniels' budget director, Christopher Ruhl, sent a memo to all state agencies last month directing them to hold back 2011 fiscal-year spending by another 5 percent after already chopping spending by 10 percent a few months ago.

The most recent state revenue forecast shows 2011 fiscal-year collections coming in lower than they were as far back as 2006.