Revenue forecast may brighten the summer for legislators
The economic outlook from Wednesday's state revenue forecast was virtually unchanged from the expectations in February, providing taxpayers with good and bad news about the health of the state's budget.
The "good" news is state economic activity only reduced expected revenues for 2011-13 by $16 million. The bad news is lawmakers left a minuscule budget ending fund balance and there remains a 40 percent possibility that forecasted revenue will come in $1.3 billion lower than expected before the biennium ends. These facts viewed together, however, mean lawmakers appear to have escaped the need for a special session or across-the-board cuts by the governor through at least the September revenue forecast.