Brief on March Revenue Forecast
We have posted a Policy Brief on the March revenue forecast, which can be downloaded through this link.
March 17 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
March Forecast
This afternoon the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council reduced the forecast of general fund–state revenues for current 2009–11 biennium by $79.8 million to $28.047 billion and the forecast for the 2011–13 biennium by $698.4 million to $31.907 billion. These reductions were smaller than many had feared. As require by law, the baseline forecasts were […]
March 11 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
March Economic and Revenue Update
The state’s monthly economic and revenue update (commonly called the collections report) is out today and can be downloaded here. Adjusting for the shift of certain taxpayers from quarterly to monthly reporting frequency, revenue for the February 11 to March 10 reporting month was $65 million below forecast. Adjusted revenue for the previous month was […]
March 03 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Pew-Rockefeller Study of State Revenue Forecast Accuracy
The Pew Center on the States and the Rockefeller Institute of Government have released a study of the accuracy of state revenue estimates. Here are the first three paragraphs from the press release: WASHINGTON — States have been making more serious errors in estimating their revenues during tough economic times, according to a new report […]
March 02 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
More on January Employment
As I noted on this blog yesterday, the state Employment Security Department estimates that, seasonally adjusted, the number of nonfarm jobs in Washington state was 11,000 greater in January than in December. An article in today’s Seattle Times (State’s Monthly Job Results Good, But There’s A Catch) makes much too big a deal of the […]
March 01 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Average State Employee Pay Increases
Following up on Dick’s posts yesterday and today on employee compensation, here is a chart showing annual increases in average state employee pay for the years 1999 through 2009. I have excluded higher education because tuition increases have provided extra pay increases for faculty in recent years. The underlying data come from the fiscal.wa.gov web […]
March 01 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
January Employment
The Employment Security Department released today the employment situation report for January. The headline numbers look good. Seasonally adjusted, the state added 11,000 jobs in January, and the state unemployment rate fell two-tenths, from 9.3 percent to 9.1 percent. The private sector added 11,600 jobs: service producing industries added 13,700 jobs, while goods producing industries […]
February 24 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Preliminary March Economic Forecast
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council posted the Preliminary March Economic Forecast today. The summary memo from Arun Raha (ERFC Executive Director) to the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors is here; calendar year tables are here; fiscal year tables are here. With regards to the national economy Raha’s memo has this good news: The near-term […]
February 20 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Tuition Transfer Update
As I discussed in an earlier post, the Senate version of the early action supplemental budget cut general fund–state funding to the higher education coordinating board (HEC Board) for the state need grant by $25.4 million. The Senate supplemental budget backfilled this loss in two steps. The first step was an appropriation of $25.4 million […]
February 18 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Minimum Wage Proposal Is Misguided
For 2011, Washington state’s minimum wage is $8.67 per hour. This is the country’s highest state minimum wage. Legislators are considering a misguided proposal to revise the manner in which the state’s minimum wage is indexed for inflation; this proposal would over time push the wage much, much higher.