Legislators received another dose of good budget news this week. The state is on target to end the 2016-17 budget year with a $132.5 million surplus – well ahead of the $48.4 million cushion lawmakers wrote into the budget when they adjourned the 2016 session in March, writes Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News.

One reason for the windfall: State tax collections continue to outpace projections. Through October, and the first four months of the 2016-17 budget year, revenue collections were $36.8 million ahead of projections. And for this four-month period, revenue collections are up 9.6 percent from 2015, according to the latest budget update from the state’s Division of Financial Management. Richert’s full report is online here.

Legislative Budget Director Cathy Holland-Smith, who presented the latest budget numbers to the Legislative Council today, said it’s pretty much all good news. “It’s a very stable environment that we’re in right now,” she said. “The revenue seems to be stable, the spending seems to be stable, the needs seem to be stable.”