Amid continuing state budget angst, the state’s chief economist reported a tiny ray of sunshine Monday.  The new tax collection report for the past month is up about $24 million.

That’s peanuts compared with the $5 billion budget gap that faces lawmakers, of course, and swamps the $700 million worth of spending cuts the governor and the Legislature just approved as they try to get the state’s budget back in balance.  But it’s the right direction.

Arun Raha, director of the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, chopped about $1.2 billion from expected revenue last month, stunning Olympia.  On Monday, his monthly update spoke to a state and national economy that have stabilized. Of the national picture, he said:

“The economy continues to muddle along. Output is growing again, but not fast enough yet to lower the unemployment rate. So we are in a recovery, but it still feels like a recession.”

He said the state’s economic expansion also continues to be slow-walking.  After a burst of hiring in the spring, the state’s private sector added just 6,000 jobs between June and October, while state and local governments were giving pink slips to 4,700 people.  Personal income, though, has “rebounded and increased at an estimated 4.8 percent annualized rate in the second quarter” and year-over-year growth in sales and business taxes is 8.6 percent. General tax receipts are up $24.1 percent above the November forecast, mostly due to  one-time business tax collections.