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Grappling with a $2 billion state budget shortfall

Yesterday’s official revenue forecast confirmed expectations that deteriorating economic conditions have plunged the state budget into a deep hole. The loss of $1.4 billion in anticipated revenue collections, combined with the need to build reserves, means lawmakers confront a problem approaching $2 billion. How they will handle is so far unclear. While it’s likely a […]

More on the Forecast: Balance Sheet

Here is a general fund-state balance sheet incorporating the new forecast. The projected GF-S ending balance for the 2011-13 biennium is negative $1.555 billion. Counting the $280 million expected ending balance for the budget stabilization account, total expected reserves are negative $1.275 billion. Deciding not to shoot the messenger, the members of the Economic and […]

September Revenue Forecast: Down $1.4 Billion

The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council is meeting right now. The baseline forecast for the general fund-state account is down $1.413 billion from the June forecast. An alternate baseline, which assumes slower growth in national GDP in 2013, is down $1.429 billion from the June forecast. Here is a link to the press release.

Revenue collections report offers a bleak preview of Thursday's forecast

The economic and revenue forecast council’s latest collections report is available here. Here’s the crux: Major General Fund-State (GF-S) revenue collections for the August 11 – September 10, 2011 collection period were $9.5 million (0.9%) below the June forecast. Cumulatively, collections are $40.2 million (1.2%) below the forecast. Even though revenues have so far been […]

New pension assumption will increase pressure on state budget

  As Brad Shannon reports in the Olympian, suggestions made by the state actuary for improving the solvency of the state pension system will result in a further squeeze on the state’s troubled budget. In a new report, actuary Matt Smith recommends that lawmakers lower rate-of-return expectations on pension investments to about 7.5 percent over […]

New Brief: The 2011-13 Budget and the Upcoming Revenue Forecast

As Kriss reported on Sunday, the September 15 revenue forecast probably won’t be pretty:  “[State economist Arun] Raha indicated that a major downward adjustment to the forecast of state revenue for the 2011-13 biennium is forthcoming.” In light of that, we have a new brief today that describes some of the policy changes made in […]

WRC economist named to state debt commission

Kriss Sjoblom, WRC vice president and economist, will serve on the new state debt commission established by SB 5181. Here’s how the bill report describes the commission’s activity. A commission is established to examine the use of debt in Washington State and make recommendations on debt policy and debt limitations. Commission members include the State […]

Raha presages major downward adjustment to state revenue forecast

State economist Arun Raha presented the preliminary September economic forecast for the state at a meeting of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council in Olympia last Friday (September 2).  Raha indicated that a major downward adjustment to the forecast of state revenue for the 2011-13 biennium is forthcoming. Events since the last forecast in June […]

GASB Proposals for Public Pension Accounting and Reporting

Earlier this summer, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) released proposed new standards for state pension accounting and financial reporting.  One of the reasons GASB has proposed these changes is the “increasing need among the users of governmental financial reports for comparable information about pensions.”  The WRC looked at public pensions in a policy brief […]

Tax increase proposals showing up on state ballots…

Stateline.org reports that taxpayers in more states will be voting on revenue increases. Tight budgets, several years of spending cuts and continued economic sluggishness explain part of the trend. But, more important than these, in several states voters have tied lawmakers hands by requiring legislative supermajorities or voter approval for tax increases. Also implicated is […]