Doug Howgate, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said cutting taxes, boosting spending, and socking money away is an amazing trifecta that doesn’t come around very often and makes crafting a budget a lot easier.

“You don’t normally see that unicorn,” he said. “When you get 40 percent revenue growth over a two-year period and you pass the biggest tax increase in 20 years [the millionaire tax], it makes some of those decisions a little bit easier.”