The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council’s monthly Economic & Revenue Update is out today, and the results were quite good for a change. For the June 11 to July 10 month, general fund–state revenue collections were $66.5 million greater than the forecast, which was revised just 3 weeks ago.

The economic outlook remains clouded, however, with considerable risk that events in Europe will kick the U.S. back into recession. And as the Update correctly cautions:

… there is a considerable amount of variability in month-to-month collections. Business activity is not always smooth month-to-month, as the timing of large transactions can fall just ahead of or behind the last day of the month. Monthly collections also include late payments, payments resulting from audits, refunds of prior payments, etc., which can vary substantially each month. Because of these factors, it is often the case that a stronger-than-forecasted month of collections is followed by a weaker month. It therefore remains to be seen whether this month’s variance represents a real increase in collections or if it will be at least partially reversed next month.

The Update is available here; the press release, here.