The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) met on Thursday (Feb. 15) to update the forecast of state revenue. The forecast of general fund–state (GFS) revenue for the current biennium (2017–19) increased by $647.0 million to $44,212.9 million. The forecast of GFS revenue for the following biennium (2019–21) increased by $671.2 million to $48,253.4 million.

Budget reports from legislative fiscal committees often roll-up three accounts; the GFS, the education legacy trust account and the Washington opportunity pathways account. We refer to this three-account roll-up as the NGFS+. For the NGFS+, the forecast of revenue for the 2017–19 biennium increased by $627.8 million to $44,990.1 million, and the forecast of general fund-state revenue for the 2019–21 biennium increased by $659.7 million to $49,076.5 million.

Excluding the effect of legislation enacted after the June 2017 forecast (which, with the McCleary property tax hike, totaled a whopping $2,079.1 million for 2017–19 and $3,482.7 million for 2019–21.), the cumulative increase in NGFS+ revenue from the June forecast to the present one is $1,212.1 million for the 2017–19 and $1,143.2 million for 2019–21. With this much additional revenue to work with, legislators should have an easy (maybe even fun) time writing a supplemental budget.

The EFRC press release is here; slides from the meeting are here.