RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia government agencies were able to save enough money through July that the state employees will receive a year-end bonus for the second time since 2010, two state officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Gov. Bob McDonnell will announce operational savings that easily exceed $100 million in an address Wednesday morning to the General Assembly's budget-writing committees.

The officials, knowledgeable about the final savings total, said it would comfortably cover $77 million to $80 million in unencumbered money from the 2012 fiscal year budget necessary to give state executive branch employees a one-time 3 percent bonus in December.

They spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the governor's address. They would not provide the exact total of the savings.

The savings constitute the second piece of an overall state general fund budget surplus, and it marks the third year in a row that state government has ended its fiscal year with a monetary cushion.

In July, McDonnell announced that revenues collected for the 12 months ending June 30 exceeded the official revenue forecast on which budgeted spending was based by $129 million.

Savings from Medicaid are expected to account for "tens of millions of dollars" of the total, said one of the officials.

While the state has never ended a budget with a deficit, it was forced to reconcile shortfalls exceeding than $6 billion since 2007 reflecting the onset of the worst national economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Virginia's largesse comes at a time when some states are still struggling with shortfalls and considering cuts to services and increases in taxes.

Much of the credit for the surplus goes to strong and steady collections during the past fiscal year of two major general revenue sources: individual income tax withholding collections paid on wages and salaries and retail sales taxes.

Individual income tax withholdings finished about $34 million ahead of expectations, while sales taxes added about $55 million to the revenue surplus, Finance Secretary Richard D. Brown announced on July 30.