This Washington
Morning Jolt! The State Budget Forecast
It's not exactly a jolt (Gov. Chris Gregoire has been warning everyone about it for at least a month). But the new state revenue forecast is out and it's not good news.
Revenues for the rest of the '09-11 biennium budget are expected to come up $770 million short. The forecast also calls for a $669 million shortfall for the next biennium—for a total shortfall of $1.4 billion on the horizon.
The state is already coming off a $12 billion shortfall from the end of the '07-09 budget and the 09-'11 budget. The solution has been nearly $5 billion in government cuts along with $370 million set of tax increases, and other fixes like fund transfers, federal money, and rainy day fund money. (The new taxes made up about 8.5 percent of the fix.)
With these new numbers (the $770 million hit), the $250 million ending fund balance the state had after the previous surgery, has turned into a $520 million negative. "Our $12 billion problem has turned into a $12.8 billion problem, " Glenn Kuper, director of the state Office of Financial Management told PubliCola this morning.
The solution, as the governor warned earlier in the week, is more cuts. To balance the budget (i.e., $520 million in cuts) the governor has asked for 6.3 percent across the board cuts in all state agencies.
In a press statement this morning, Marty Brown, director of the the Office of Financial Management said:
Meanwhile, the $669 millio shortfall for the next biennium—2011-13—pushes the $3 billion shortfall to $4.5 on a planned $33 billion budget.
Revenues for the rest of the '09-11 biennium budget are expected to come up $770 million short. The forecast also calls for a $669 million shortfall for the next biennium—for a total shortfall of $1.4 billion on the horizon.
The state is already coming off a $12 billion shortfall from the end of the '07-09 budget and the 09-'11 budget. The solution has been nearly $5 billion in government cuts along with $370 million set of tax increases, and other fixes like fund transfers, federal money, and rainy day fund money. (The new taxes made up about 8.5 percent of the fix.)
With these new numbers (the $770 million hit), the $250 million ending fund balance the state had after the previous surgery, has turned into a $520 million negative. "Our $12 billion problem has turned into a $12.8 billion problem, " Glenn Kuper, director of the state Office of Financial Management told PubliCola this morning.
The solution, as the governor warned earlier in the week, is more cuts. To balance the budget (i.e., $520 million in cuts) the governor has asked for 6.3 percent across the board cuts in all state agencies.
In a press statement this morning, Marty Brown, director of the the Office of Financial Management said:
“With this drop in revenue, our current budget is now projected to be in the red. We will enact cuts to address this problem while we look for ways to transform the budget and address shortfalls for the next budget period.”
Meanwhile, the $669 millio shortfall for the next biennium—2011-13—pushes the $3 billion shortfall to $4.5 on a planned $33 billion budget.
