For the second consecutive year, Massachusetts has racked up a sizable year-end budget surplus.
State Revenue Commissioner Christopher Harding says a preliminary accounting of the fiscal year that ended June 30 shows the state collected $29.7 billion in taxes, exceeding projections by more than $1 billion.
Tax collections were up nearly 7% over the previous fiscal year, in which the state also finished with a $1 billion surplus.
Harding says nearly all of the increase was driven by higher capital gains and corporate tax collections. The state will deposit $848 million in capital gains receipts into its so-called rainy day fund.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is still reviewing the budget for the new fiscal year that lawmakers sent to his desk some three weeks past the July 1 deadline.
