JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) _ The state budget director says Missouri’s revenues continue to increase compared with last year’s.

Budget Director Linda Luebbering on Monday reported revenues have grown 7.7 percent this fiscal year. That’s far over Gov. Jay Nixon’s estimate of 4.6 percent.

Nixon had used that estimate to guide spending restrictions on hundreds of millions of dollars approved for use by the Legislature last session.

Net general revenues also increased 11.9 percent in April compared with the same time last year. Individual income tax collections grew 15.4 percent last month, bringing the total collections this year up 8.5 percent.

The increasing revenues allowed the state to return $400 million borrowed from the state’s reserve fund. The constitutional deadline to repay that money is May 15.