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New general fund forecast: up $110 million for 2011-13, up $121 million for 2013-15

The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met today and approved new forecasts for state revenues. For the current 2011-13 biennium, the general fund-state forecast increased by $110 million; the education legacy trust account forecast decreased by $12 million; and the opportunities pathways account forecast increased by $11 million. For the upcoming 2013-15 biennium, the […]

May 11 to June 10 state revenue collections exceeded forecast by $40 million

The economic and revenue forecast council issued its monthly Economic & Revenue Update today. Here are the key bullet points regarding revenue from the summary: Major General Fund-State revenue collections for the May 11 – June 10, 2013 collection period were $40.0 million (2.3%) higher than the March forecast. Of that amount, however, $10.0 million […]

Video of Economic and Revenue Forecast Council economic review meeting

Executive Director Steve Lerch presented the preliminary June economic forecast at a meeting of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council today. Here is the TVW video of the meeting: And here are the “notebooks” for the meeting, including copies of Dr. Lerch’s slides. As I noted in my May 29 post, the new economic forecast […]

S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index for Seattle

The S&P/Case-Shiller house price indexes for March (based on January, February and March transactions) were released yesterday. The seasonally adjusted (SA) March value for the Seattle Metro area is 148.8. (The unadjusted index for March is 145.2.) The Seattle index peaked in May 2009 with a value of 190.6 (SA). From that point the the […]

The impact of a 160,000 barrels per day refinery

Last year, we prepared a study of the economic impact of the state’s petroleum refineries. These impacts can be expressed in terms of the hypothetical Washington refinery producing 160,000 barrels of product a day. In 2011, such a refinery would have provided 552 jobs, and its workers would have received $66.4 million in wages and […]

Oregon revenue forecast increased

Down in Salem, the Office of Economic Analysis today updated its forecasts of state revenues. For the current 2011–13 biennium, revenues to Oregon’s general fund are now forecasted to be $14.248 billion, an increase of $126 million (0.9 percent) from the amount forecasted in February. For the upcoming 2013–15 biennium, the new forecast is $15.606 […]

Benchmarking added 12,900 to April Washington employment estimates

Here is a follow up to my earlier post on the April employment report. The estimates of Washington employment that are reported monthly by the state Employment Security Department (ESD) are derived from a survey of employers (the establishment survey) conducted by U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Because the estimates are […]

Preliminary estimate shows Washington gained 3,800 jobs last month

The state Employment Security Department has released its Monthly Employment Report for April (here). The preliminary estimate is that the state gained 3,800 jobs (seasonally adjusted, net) from March to April. Of these jobs, 3,600 were private private sector and 200 were government. The original estimate that the state lost 5,500 jobs from February to […]

Inslee's three priorities for special session: budget, transportation, DUI

Gov. Inslee has pared his list of special session priorities to three. Gov. Jay Inslee has narrowed his list of top priorities for lawmakers to address in a special session, saying Monday that the Legislature must focus on the operating budget, a transportation-funding package and new legislation to crack down on drunken drivers. As the […]

State revenues exceeded forecast by $57.6 million during April 11 to May 10 collection period

For the second month in a row, state revenue collections have beaten the forecast. Collections for the April 11 to May 10 period beat expectations by $57.6 million. Of this, $29.5 million represents property tax payments. State economists suspect that the positive variance in property taxes will be reversed in the May 11–June 10 collection […]