Fiscal Year Ends at Midnight: Four States without Adopted Budgets
Stateline.org reports that Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon and Massachusetts have yet to meet the deadline for adopting a state budget. Iowa and Oregon are likely to wrap up their work by today’s deadline; Massachusetts and Minnesota are likely to miss it. Only Minnesota, however, faces the prospect of a government shutdown, which hasn’t happened on a protracted […]
June 23 , 2011 - Emily Makings
Budget Gimmicks
Stateline has a handy article today on common budget gimmicks used by the states, with copious examples. Not surprisingly, many of these will be familiar to Washington budget-watchers: Putting off payments Accelerating revenue Using temporary money for recurring expenses Counting on savings that aren't likely to materialize Counting on revenue that isn't likely to materialize […]
June 16 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
June revenue forecast: Down $183 million and not much cushion
Today’s official revenue forecast went according to the well-worn script. Bad news accumulates. As Kriss anticipated in our earlier blog post on the collections report, the ending balance for the current biennium, which ends in a couple of weeks, vanished. The balance sheet distributed today shows the current biennium with a negative ending balance of $84 […]
June 15 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Improved competitiveness from legislative session, but just a start
That’s the theme of today’s column. Employers have been cheered by some legislative outcomes. Nonetheless, it’s amazingly difficult to get the right things done in Olympia. The state’s abundant assets — trade, technology, natural resources, brilliant innovators and skilled workers — keep us competitive, but tax, regulatory and labor policies and inconsistencies weigh heavily on […]
June 13 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
June Revenue Collections Report
The June Economic & Revenue Update issue today by the Forecast Council (available here) shows a shortfall in collections that almost completely exhausts the projected 2009-11 ending balance in the near general fund. Here are the key paragraphs on revenue collections from the update: Major General Fund-State (GF-S) revenues for the May 11 – June […]
June 06 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Microsoft & Boeing announce $50 million scholarship fund
Today, coincident with the governor’s signing higher education bills, Boeing and Microsoft pledge $25 million each to fund scholarships for students in high-demand fields. This is very good news, as the governor points out. …our colleges and universities must have the resources to educate and train the next generation of engineers, scientists and workers. Tuition […]
June 06 , 2011 - Emily Makings
State Agency Reorganizations
Stateline has an article today about various efforts to reorganize state agencies, looking specifically at Kansas, Michigan, and Washington. The section on Washington addresses the consolidation of certain back-office functions that passed as part of the budget this year: The proposal is expected to save the state $18 million and eliminate 95 full-time employees. Stan […]
June 03 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
No joy in today's employment report
As foreshadowed earlier in the week, today’s job report confirms that the American economy remains stagnant. From the statement by BLS Commssioner Keith Hall: In May, nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+54,000), following increases that averaged 220,000 in the prior 3 months. The unemployment rate was essentially unchanged, at 9.1 percent, in May. Employment in […]
May 27 , 2011 - Emily Makings
Strassel on the Budget
The state legislature has finished work on the 2011-13 budget, but the federal government is still in budget mode. In her column this week, Kimberley Strassel (our annual dinner speaker this year) asks who is winning the budget war: By refusing to blink, Republicans keep forcing Democrats to acknowledge a very simple political reality: Voters […]
May 24 , 2011 - Emily Makings
The 2011-13 Budget Deal
The 2011-13 budget deal announced today includes NGFS+ expenditures of $32.203 billion. That's $237.1 million less than in the House-passed budget, and $77.0 million more than the Senate-passed budget. According to the budget documents, the proposal includes $4.1 billion in spending reductions, $459 million in transfers to the general fund, $57 million in budget driven […]