Taxpayers Cashing Relief Checks From Unexpected State Bounties

States from California to Maryland are using revenue coming in higher than expected in this Covid economy to fuel their own relief efforts in the absence of more federal aid.

Total tax revenue collected across the 50 states was down 1.8% from March through December 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, according to Tax Policy Center data, but even as pandemic pain struck jobs and Main Streets, many states collected more taxes than they anticipated at the onset of the outbreak.

Some of those states want to use the unexpected money for future tax relief or to ...