Gov. Neil Abercrombie said Thursday that stronger-than-expected state revenue growth last fiscal year could allow the state to restore spending on programs that had been reduced to help balance the budget.

The Abercrombie administration estimates that the state closed the fiscal year in June with a $306 million surplus. The positive balance was the result of the administration’s spending restrictions, labor savings from public workers, tax adjustments and higher revenue growth.

State tax collections were up 14.9 percent, which was higher than the 12 percent projected by the state Council on Revenues.

The administration will ask the council to take the higher revenue growth into consideration when evaluating the growth projection for this fiscal year. The council had lowered the projection in May — to 5.3 percent, down from 7.5 percent — citing concerns that lifting general excise exemptions on some business activities had not produced as much revenue as anticipated and that state tax credits for renewable energy were costing the state too much.

"We continue to have a solid, sober and serious approach to financial management, and it’s paying off for us," Abercrombie said at a news conference at the state Capitol. "It’s paying off in a way that I think is going to allow us to restore these services and continue to transform our government in the most positive way."

Kalbert Young, the state’s budget director, said the administration may be able to release money for programs withheld last fiscal year and would have more flexibility with this year’s budget. But Young and others warn that the state still has to deal with significant unfunded liabilities in the public worker health care and retirement funds.

The administration also wants to replenish the state’s hurricane relief and rainy day funds, which were tapped to close budget deficits and end teacher furloughs on instruction days.

Many of the tax adjustments and labor savings the state adopted to balance the budget will expire at the end of this fiscal year, so revenue growth from economic recovery would have to make up the difference for the state to stay in surplus.

If the state’s revenue trend holds, public employee labor unions will likely ask for pay raises. Social service groups will also urge the administration and lawmakers to fully restore spending on social programs cut during the recession.

"I’m glad that the economy did better than anybody thought it would be, but by no stretch of the imagination is there a huge surplus that would allow us to create new initiatives or pursue a whole bunch of new spending," said state Sen. David Ige (D, Aiea-Pearl City), chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.