LINCOLN - Nebraska closed out its fiscal year in better shape than once feared but with little to spare for any new spending or tax initiatives, a key lawmaker said Wednesday. The State Department of Revenue released a report showing that the state collected $4.939 billion in net tax revenues for the year that ended June 30. That’s $10.66 million more than the certified forecast issued in July 2019 and represents a 4.2% growth in taxes compared to the previous year.

State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, the Appropriations Committee chairman, said the year-end tally looks much better than the estimates he got a couple of months ago, which had suggested the state would end the year about $95 million in the red because of economic disruption caused by the coronavirus.

Still, the year-end figure is $266 million less than the most recently updated revenue projections, issued in February. State lawmakers had been building their budget around that recent forecast before the session was interrupted by the coronavirus in mid-March.

Gov. Pete Ricketts said Nebraska did well to end the year by putting more than $10 million into the state’s cash reserve fund.

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