With the economy slowly improving, the state's budget surplus is now projected to be better than expected - at nearly $400 million.
State comptroller Nancy Wyman released the latest estimate on Monday, saying that the projected surplus is now at $393.3 million for the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The final tally will be announced in early September as all of the numbers of state tax collections are tabulated. The latest projection is about $150 million higher than last month.
One of the biggest increases was in the state sales tax, which generates more than $3 billion annually and is the second-biggest category after the state income tax. The sales tax projections has been increasing since March, Wyman said, and the latest hike was up by about $39 million when compared to the previous projection.
"The improvement in the sales tax is a good indicator that our economy is slowly turning around, but overall growth is still far below what we need for a full recovery,'' Wyman said in a statement.