AUSTIN — Texas has so completely recovered from the economic slump caused by COVID-19 that state tax receipts have set new records, adding $14 billion to an already swollen surplus, Comptroller Glenn Hegar said Thursday.
Inflation is a factor but so is rapid population growth and a thriving energy sector, Hegar said.
“I round it down to $40 billion,” Hegar said of his projected surplus, shortly before he formally advised GOP state leaders of the good news in a letter updating his “certification revenue estimate” of eight months ago.
In the two-year budget cycle that ends 13 months from now, about two-thirds of the state’s $40 billion cushion is discretionary state revenue that lawmakers can spend when they convene next year, Hegar noted.
The rest is in a “rainy day fund” that would require a supermajority vote to tap, the Republican tax collector stressed.
Sales tax is the state’s revenue workhorse, and it’s gone…
