Kriss Sjoblom

May Report on State Tax Collections

Economic and Revenue Forecast Council issued its monthly update on revenue collections and the economy today, and while the headline number looks very good, revenue for the month $157.7 million higher than had been forecast, the underlying story was not positive. The good headline number was entirely due to the tax amnesty program, which ended […]

New Brief on Higher Education in the 2011-13 Budgets

We have posted a new policy brief on higher education in the House and Senate budgets, titled “Higher Education: State Funding Down, Tuition Up.” It is available through this link. Briefly: Under the House budget, NGFS+ funding for higher education would be $2.81 billion, while under the Senate budget it would be  $2.84 billion. Either […]

New WRC Policy Brief Comparing House and Senate Budgets

We have posted a Policy Brief (So Close and Yet So Far Away) comparing balance sheets and high-level spending plans for the House and Senate budgets.

Senate Ways and Means Committee Passes Budget

Yesterday (April 15) the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed its version of an operating budget for the 2011–13 biennium. Amendments increased total NGFS+ appropriations for the biennium by $17 million compared to the committee Chair’s proposal. Of the $17 million net increase, $7 million was the result of technical amendments correcting errors in the […]

Revenue Collections for March 11–April 10 Period Exceed Forecast by $5.1 Million

The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council issued its monthly Economic & Revenue Update today. Here are the key takeaways:

House Passes Budget

The House of Representatives today (Saturday, April 9) passed its version of the 2011-13 state operating budget. The House passed budget bill differed little from the version reported out of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. On Friday, 11 amendments were made to the House Ways and Means bill on the House floor. […]

House Ways & Means Committee Passes Budget

Last evening the House Ways and Means Committee passed–with 10 relatively minor amendments–the 2011-13 budget we detailed in yesterday’s policy brief. The 10 amendments added $20.6 million to NGFS+ spending for the biennium. However, the projected ending balance is down by only $3 million (to $792 million) due to the correction of several errors that […]

New WRC Policy Brief: Clarifying the Role of Tax Preferences

Our new Policy Brief on tax preferences can be download through this link.

Four Charts on Washington Personal Income

The Bureau of Economic Analysis updated its estimates of state-level personal income on Wednesday, with numbers through the 4th quarter of 2010 (BEA press release). Here are 4 charts using the new data.

DVR Alert: Kriss on King 5's Upfront with Robert Mak

Update: Here is a link to the program. The video of the program is 20 minutes, 30 seconds in length. The segment on tax preferences begins 9 minutes in (11 minutes, 30 seconds remaining), following a segment on the Pierce County Assessor.