BOISE, ID – Idaho state revenues exceeded projections for the month of April, with the latest numbers suggesting the state will end its fiscal year June 30 with an ending balance of nearly $94 million if revenues come in as predicted over the next two months.
That would leave Idaho with a budget surplus, or difference, of $26.4 million compared to the fiscal year 2026 budget set by the Idaho Legislature, according to the May edition of the monthly General Fund Budget Monitor report published this week by the Idaho Legislative Services Office.
The new budget report shows that total April state revenue collections were $808.2 million. That is $56.9 million more than the Idaho Division of Financial Management’s forecast for April. Drilling down into the details, corporate income tax collections came in $135 million ahead of the state’s forecast, but individual income tax collections came in $81.3 million below the forecast, the report shows.
The report also shows that Idaho’s revenue collections for April 2026 came in $52.6 million, or 6.1%, below actual revenue collections from the same time period one year ago, in April 2025.
Idaho’s revenue and budget numbers are always closely scrutinized because the Idaho Constitution requires the state to pass a balanced budget and prohibits Idaho from running a deficit where expenses exceed the available revenue.
Efforts to reach Sen. Scott Grow, a Republican from Eagle who serves as the co-chair of the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, were not immediately successful Wednesday.
However, last month Grow told the Idaho Capital Sun that revenue collections from the month of April are always extremely important because they include tax returns. Grow said he would continue to study and monitor the state’s budget situation closely, but he was feeling optimistic.
“…(I)t gives me some comfort because we’ve got a little more cushion there,” Grow said in an April 15 phone interview.
Although the new state budget report brings positive news of a projected state budget surplus, there were two notes state budget analysts included.
First, the state has tweaked how it records sales tax collections and Tax Relief Fund distributions, said Keith Bybee, the budget and policy analysis manager for the Idaho Legislative Services Office. The new budget report notes that the Division of Financial Management “reported higher sales tax collections because Tax Relief Fund distributions to the (state’s) general fund were recognized as sales tax and reported earlier in the fiscal year.”
Second, the state has not finished processing tax returns, and state officials do not know how much more money will be sent out to taxpayers via tax refunds in May and June, the final two months of the current fiscal year, the report said.
Idaho legislators just cut state budgets to pay for federal tax cuts and guard against revenue uncertainty
The new report projecting a year-end state budget surplus arrives after Idaho legislators spent the 2026 legislative session approving across-the-board budget cuts for most state agencies and programs to pay for federal tax cuts signed into law in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by President Donald Trump, and to guard against state revenue uncertainty and prevent the state from running a budget deficit.
For months heading into the beginning of the 2026 legislative sessions, Idaho was projecting to end the current fiscal year with a state budget deficit, not a surplus, the Sun previously reported. State legislators responded to the budget crunch – and to their desire to conform to federal tax cuts signed into law by Trump – by cutting budgets for most state agencies by 4% during the current fiscal year and 5% starting next fiscal year.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
