Is Utah budget tallying $500 million surplus?

But for years the TC23 report had been issued monthly and showed an estimate of surplus, or deficit, tax collections compared to the budget. Former commission chief economist Doug Macdonald would at times take a little heat for his projections.

And sometimes there was political fallout — as legislators and the governor were pressured by those using Tax Commission estimates to take this or that fiscal road.

After a tiff with commissioners over his views on pending tax reform legislation, Macdonald suddenly retired last spring. And ever since, the commission's TC23 reports have either not contained any estimates on how much extra money the state is collecting, or had surplus estimates in broad numbers.

Johnson said future TC23 reports should include a broad estimate of extra revenues. Although he added that not until half the fiscal year was gone in December would he consider any surplus tax estimates close to being accurate.

The state ended the last fiscal year June 30 with around $380 million in surplus, a record amount of money.

Around $160 million was given in tax cuts by the GOP-dominated Legislature last session. And in a Tuesday night meeting of the Conservative Caucus, Hughes said members are committed "to a large tax cut next year." He said it was too soon to talk numbers or exact types of tax cuts.

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