The much-awaited state tax revenue figures for April - the biggest month of the year - are in, and the news is good. April tax revenues beat forecasts by $14 million, putting the state's tax revenue to date for the fiscal year $74.2 million above the state's forecasts. “Obviously this is great news, and it confirms the wisdom of Gov. Otter’s conservative approach to budgeting in collaboration with legislative Republicans," said Otter's budget chief, Wayne Hammon. "If these strong returns continue through the end of the fiscal year, we should have some extra money for education. But we still have two months to go, so we’ll continue to be prudent and watch the numbers closely.”

Because of maintenance of effort requirements attached to federal stimulus funds that Idaho accepted, a portion of any additional revenues has to go to public schools, which suffered historic state funding cuts both last year and this year, though it's not yet clear how much the schools could receive. Click here to see the full Idaho General Fund Revenue Report for May, which covers the April figures.