What’s happy about it, I find myself grumbling. Given the bad news from the June revenue forecast, the pandemic, and the recession, it doesn’t feel much like a clean slate. Nevertheless, today is the first day of fiscal year 2021 and the second year of the 2019–21 biennium.

FY 2021 is expected to be the worst year for revenues. FY 2021 revenues are now estimated to be 13.0 percent below what was expected in the February forecast for the year, 7.0 percent below the June estimate of FY 2020 revenues, and 3.8 percent below actual FY 2019 revenues.

On the positive side, effective today the workforce education investment account (WEIA) will be included in the budget outlook. The WEIA was established in 2019 to hold the revenues from a business and occupation tax surcharge meant to fund higher education.

Before today, under the four-year balanced budget requirement, a positive ending balance was required over the general fund–state, education legacy trust account, and opportunity pathways account. Now the WEIA will be added to these “funds subject to the outlook.” We have argued that doing so will improve budget transparency.

(The chart does not include WEIA funds because the revenue forecast did not provide them by fiscal year. For the 2019–21 biennium, the June forecast of WEIA revenues is $29 million below the February forecast.)