The wide swing indicates the state is still navigating an atypical time, particularly with collections in some areas, such as sales tax revenue, still falling below expectations, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-backed budget watchdog group.
“You don’t want to panic when things aren’t looking that great, and you also don’t want to spike the ball too early when you have your first good month in a long time,” Howgate said. “This is probably a good sign or no sign [of what to expect from collections going forward]. We really don’t know what the future is going to look like.”