The surprise underscores the disproportionate impacts of the outbreak and business shutdown. Lower-income workers for such face-to-face industries as restaurants are losing their jobs, while wealthier individuals work from home, buy goods online and sell stock -- all generating the income that states rely on to balance their books.

Stock markets have thrived -- both because of the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts and prospects for an economic rebound in 2021 -- and initial public offerings have minted a new class of wealthy Americans, a boost to states such as New York and California that have progressive tax systems.

In California, which gets almost half of its personal income tax collections from the top 1% of earners, three former Stanford University students became billionaires from the IPO of their San Francisco-based food-delivery company DoorDash Inc.

“For those fortunate to maintain employment and income during this pandemic, their financial situation is better than before,” economists at UCLA Anderson said in a December report. “These households have been able to accumulate at least an additional $1.6 trillion in savings.”

And many have continued to spend. Because states are permitted to tax internet sales from businesses outside their borders, municipal governments have benefited from people shopping at home. Texas, which garners its largest source of revenue from sales taxes, saw the biggest gains over the past 12 months from the $1.25 billion of collections from online retailers, Comptroller Glenn Hegar said last month. In California, home to some of the most sweeping Covid restrictions nationwide on businesses, sales tax revenue stands at about the same so far as it was in the previous year.

Regions have gone through different experiences given the variance in public health restrictions, with some only now beginning to feel the pain, said Irma Esparza Diggs, director of federal advocacy for the National League of Cities. “This pandemic hasn’t hit our state and local governments the same way at every point in time, which has been the difficulty in conveying to Congress this is how much we’re losing,” she said.

The group in December released a survey that found on average, cities have seen revenues decline by 21% since the beginning of the pandemic, while additional expenditures such as protective equipment have jumped 17% over the same time period. Chicago closed an $800 million gap in its 2020 budget that was caused by Covid-19 and an even bigger $1.2 billion hole in 2021, 65% of which was related to the pandemic.

The virus has decimated the finances of transit agencies. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the nation’s largest mass transit system, said it will have to slash subways and buses by 40% and chop commuter rail service by half if aid doesn’t come from Washington.

And some states have needed to take unusual action to balance their books. New Jersey last month sold $3.7 billion of general-obligation bonds to cover its revenue shortfall. Illinois has tapped the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program.

“Even though the prospects of a vaccine are promising, it’s going to take at least a year or two before things go back to some kind of normalcy,” said Lucy Dadayan, a senior research associate with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.