The Legislature's budget staff says Arizona's general fund had record high revenue in December, likely due in part to taxpayers temporarily increasing their estimated payments because of a federal tax change.

The budget staff reports December general fund revenue was just over $1 billion, nearly a 20 percent increase over a year earlier and roughly $130 million above the current state budget's projected amount.

The staff says the revenue increase was due to individual income tax payments as taxpayers took advantage of a generous federal allowance for deductions of state and local taxes still in effect in December before being reduced starting in 2018.

However, the staff says December's bump in estimated payments may result in larger refunds in April because taxpayers' underlying tax liability for 2017 didn't change.