New Senate budget proposal would spend $37.9 billion in 2015-17
On Thursday, the Senate Ways and Means (W&M) Committee passed a new 2015-17 operating budget proposal (SB 6050). House Democrats have just released their new proposal (more on that later). The Seattle Times adds, But as the parties continue to trade ideas, they’re still struggling over philosophical differences on how — and how much — […]
May 21 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Transparency and dynamic scoring
In the latest episode of Policy Today, Lew and Kriss talk about the new requirement that the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation use dynamic scoring for certain bills. The Tax Foundation notes that the new director of CBO, Keith Hall, has testified that CBO will be transparent in its efforts at […]
May 20 , 2015 - Emily Makings
May 20 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Revenue forecast de-escalates calls for new taxes
After Monday’s helpful revenue forecast, a resolution of the operating budget impasse may be in sight. Austin Jenkins reports, One day after the state got a favorable revenue forecast, Washington Governor Jay Inslee said he no longer believes the $1.4 billion tax package he proposed in December is necessary. . . . But Inslee said […]
May 19 , 2015 - Emily Makings
May 18 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
New general fund–state revenue forecast: up $106.2 million for 2013–15 biennium; up $309.3 million for 2015–17 biennium
The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council held its quarterly meeting today. The forecast of general fund–state revenue for the current biennium (2013–15) increased by $106.2 million to $33,652.8 million. The forecast of general fund–state revenue for the upcoming biennium (2015–17) increased by $309.3 million to $36,758.1 million. This is the ninth consecutive meeting at […]
May 14 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
Rep. Springer offers cap and trade proposal
The House Appropriations Committee held a hearing today on a carbon tax bill proposed by Representative Larry Springer. This cap and trade bill would be a substitute to SHB 1314, which was passed out by the House Committee on Environment on February 12. We described the latter bill in our special report Carbon Taxation. Compared […]
May 14 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
New revenue forecast will be issued on May 18
In a special meeting held in Olympia today, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council voted to move the second quarter update to the state revenue forecast forward to May 18 from the originally scheduled June 17. As I noted earlier this week, over the three months since the last update collections have exceeded forecast by […]
May 12 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Wages vs pension promises: A bird in the hand . . .
David Goldstein links to the news that the Illinois Supreme Court has found certain pension reforms in that state to be unconstitutional. The New York Times reports, The changes would have curtailed future cost-of-living adjustments for workers, raised the age of retirement for some and put a cap on pensions for those with the highest […]
May 12 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
April 11–May 10 state revenue collections were $4.6 million greater than forecasted
This afternoon the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council issued its monthly Economic and Revenue Update. Here are the key bullets on revenue from the summary: Major General Fund-State revenue collections for the April 11 – May 10, 2015 collection period were $4.6 million (0.3%) higher than the February forecast. Property tax collections came in $21.6 […]