Sept. 11 to Oct. 10 state revenue collections beat forecast by $36.6 million
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released the monthly Economic and Revenue Update today. General fund-state revenue collections for the September 11 to October 10 period beat the forecast by $36.6 million. However, Forecast Council staff believe that much of this “positive variance” is due to timing of payments and will offset by below-forecast collections […]
September 19 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
September revenue forecast unchanged
Today’s revenue forecast remains essentially unchanged. From the press release: In the three months since the June forecast, U.S. economic activity has generally been in line with the baseline scenario. We continue to see slow growth, high unemployment and weak confidence. Despite the relatively small changes in the economic forecast, the level of downside uncertainty […]
September 19 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Regulatory reform – a long way to go
Emily wrote previously about the performance audit of state regulatory reform efforts. In my column today I take a closer look at the findings. Despite good intentions and serious efforts, the desired results have not materialized. The rising tide of regulation rolls in as state officials, like Canute, ineffectually order the sea to recede. We […]
September 11 , 2012 - Kriss Sjoblom
August 11 to September 10 general fund-state revenue collections were $1.1 million less than anticipated
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council issued its monthly Economic and Revenue Update today. For the August 11 to September period, general fund-state collections were a scant $1.1 million less than anticipated in the most recent official forecast, which was issued in June. For the last three months combined, revenues exceeded the forecast by $20.1 […]
August 20 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Discovering interactive tax calculators at National Taxpayers Conference
Just finished hearing a great presentation by Nick Kasprak, programmer and analyst at the Tax Foundation. he was leadoff speaker at the NTC conference, held this year in Washington, D.C. He showed us a number of user-friendly and useful tools to help understand state and local tax policies: net migration, performance against state expenditure limits, […]
August 14 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
WA and CA only states showing negative FY12 balance in NCSL budget update
While it’s not necessarily cause for alarm, the negative balances reported in the 2012 state budget update isn’t the happy news one hopes for in these things. As the National Conference of State Legislature’s notes: In Washington, FY 2012 marks the midpoint of the biennium; the shortfall will be eliminated over the remainder of the […]
August 13 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
August revenue collections report shows taxes track with forecast
Today’s revenue collections report, though possibly foreshadowing a softening, shows receipts continuing to track the June forecast. The press release has the yin and yang. It’s a good news/bad news thing. Major General Fund-State (GF-S) revenue collections were $45.0 million (3.8%) lower than the June forecast, but cumulative receipts for the last two months are […]
August 07 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Gauging the size of the next budget shortfall
Yesterday OFM released its outlook for the state budget through FY 2017. (Here’s a link to today’s slightly revised version, a tweak to footnote h). Kriss presented a biennial look at the outlook yesterday. There’s been some news coverage. I’m quoted in Washington State Wire. Richard Davis, president of the Washington Research Council, said the […]
August 06 , 2012 - Kriss Sjoblom
OFM Budget Outlook for 2013-15 and 2015-17
The state Office of Financial Management (OFM) has prepared a new “Four-Year Outlook” projecting the paths of state revenue and spending out through the end of the 2015-17 biennium assuming that the policies embedded in the 2012 supplemental state budget are maintained. Under this assumption, OFM projects NGFS+ spending (i.e. spending from the general fund–state, […]
July 19 , 2012 - Emily Makings
More from the State Budget Crisis Task Force Report
On Tuesday, Dick linked to the State Budget Crisis Task Force report. As he noted, the report shows how states face structural budget problems that were only exacerbated by the recession. The report’s “major threats to fiscal sustainability” include Medicaid, underfunded pension promises, and state budget practices — topics that we’ve written about often. Although […]