Kriss Sjoblom

June Revenue Forecast

In its quarterly meeting this morning, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) approved revised forecasts of general fund revenue for the 2009-11 and 2011-13 biennia. Meeting documents are available here. The general fund forecast for the current biennium is now $29,282 million ($29.3 billion). This is an increase of $558 million from the […]

June Economic and Revenue Update

Last Friday, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (EFRC) posted its monthly progress report, the Economic and Revenue Update, for June. The update sets the stage for Thursday, when EFRC will issue its quarterly update to the state revenue forecast. The U.S. economy has performed largely as anticipated in the February forecast, The economic recovery […]

Seattle Lost More Than 23,000 Private Sector Jobs Between March 2008 and March 2009

The Puget Sound Regional Council has posted estimates of employment in March 2009 for the cities in the four-county PSRC region here. From March 2008 to March 2009, the number of private sector jobs in the city of Seattle fell by 23,173 (5.6%), from 415,165 to 391,992. Of the lost jobs, 3,729 were in construction. […]

Unemployment Insurance Burden

This table compares the unemployment tax burden in Washington with that in other states.

Challenging Times for Refiners

These are challenging times in the oil refining industry, as an article on the front page of the business section of today’s New York Times documents (Chilly Climate for Oil Refiners). Five U.S. refineries have shut down in the past year. The recent closings signal the end of a period from roughly 2004 to 2008, […]

FIFO or LIFO

I have been optimistic that this would be a LIFO recession. Washington was one of the last states to go into recession. It has been my belief that Washington would be one of the first states out and that over the next several years Washington would out perform the rest the nation as a whole […]

Caseload Forecast Adds $277 Million to 2009-11 Costs

Yesterday (Friday the 13th), the state Caseload Forecast Council updated its forecasts for K-12 enrollments and for various human services caseloads. Here is a table that summarizes the differences between the new forecasts and the caseloads assumed in the adopted 2009¬11 budget. The key changes include: K–12. Enrollments are now expected to exceed the numbers […]

Another Collections Shortfall

The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (EFRC) issued its monthly update late this afternoon. The document is available here. These three bullets from the update summarize the key takeaways: While our economic forecasts have been accurate, our models appear to be overforecasting revenue. To be fair, these are unprecedented times, and continued weakness in consumer […]

Washington Life Sciences Economic Impact Study

We have just completed an economic impact study of Washington’s life sciences industry. The report is available here.

Comparative State and Local Taxes

On Thursday the Department of Revenue released this year’s edition of its annual report Comparative State and Local Taxes link. The primary data in the new report come from the Census Bureau’s 2007 Census of Government Finance. For 2006/2007, DOR calculates that state and local tax collections in Washington amounted to $109.25 for each $1,000 […]