Thanks to a healthy economy, Utah collected $47 million more in taxes than expected during fiscal 2017, which ended June 30.
After some required deposits into rainy day accounts and final adjustments to spending, the state ended the year with a $26 million surplus, the Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee heard in a report on Tuesday.
That includes an $8 million surplus in the general fund, and $18 million for the education fund — which is now available for future appropriations.
The state collected $6.32 billion in taxes for those funds during fiscal 2017, said Andrea Wilko, the legislature’s chief economist.
With the healthy economy, she said revenue from individual income tax was up by 7.1 percent compared to the previous year, and totaled $3.6 billion. State sales tax collections were up by 4.4 percent, and totaled nearly $1.9 billion.
Also up during the year were revenues from a variety of licenses and fees and gasoline taxes. But tax collections on tobacco and beer were down by 1.7 percent.
Wilko also predicted the healthy economy will continue for the next year.
“We are not forecasting any recession at this point,” she said.
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