We are rich, why do I feel so poor?

By Steve Poftak
May 6th, 2008

The all-important April revenues are in, and Massachusetts is swimming in cash — year-to-date we are $1.2 billion over last year’s collections and $700 million over our revenue projections. So why do we still have to dip into cash reserves to fully fund the current year budget? Shouldn’t it be raining before we use the rainy day fund?

This was disclosed, late, in a rare public briefing by the DOR commissioner and the ANF secretary. DOR has taken some hits lately, most recently from Senate Republicans who objected to discussing tax increases for the next fiscal year without a clear picture of current year revenues.

Another question — since capital gains is such a worrying source of volatility, why doesn’t DOR break that out as a separate category in its revenue updates?