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Tag: Revenue Forecast

Budget leaders: 320 million reasons to avert shutdown

Budget leaders: 320 million reasons to avert shutdown

Relieved budget writers say Washington should be able to avoid a government shutdown, after getting the year’s best revenue news, new, more robust revenue projections and a $90 million reduction in expected caseload costs. State budget Director David Schumacher and budget writers from both houses and both parties said the $320 million one-day windfall should break the Olympia logjam that had threatened to trigger a partial government shutdown if no budget were produced by June 30.  Senate budget Chairman Andy…

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Revenue update: `Flat is the new up’

Revenue update: `Flat is the new up’

A new Washington revenue forecast was what passes for good news at the beleaguered state Capitol: at least things didn’t get worse. Lawmakers and the new governor still have a potential budget gap of several billion dollars, including court-mandated K-12 funding. Some old Olympia hands had expected a sizable new drop in expected revenue for the next 27 months, perhaps in the $200 million range, but the number from chief economist Steve Lerch was up $40 million. The forecast for…

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Wee bit o’ good news: WA tax collections up $5 million

Wee bit o’ good news: WA tax collections up $5 million

Washington’s wobbly economy has generated an unexpected $5.1 million in tax collections over the past month, exceeding the projections of last month’s revenue forecast. That’s not much in the context of a $32 billion two-year state budget and there are still plenty of warning signs on the horizon as the state weathers both national and international concerns, says a new report out today from the Washington Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. Total revenue is up 10.2 percent, year-over-year.  The increase is…

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Report: WA recession over, recovery `tepid at best’

Report: WA recession over, recovery `tepid at best’

Washington’s economy is officially out of recession  — and state revenue is even growing a tiny bit. But the recovery, mirroring the national scene, is “painfully slow” and “tepid at best,” said a new Columbus Day report released by the state Economic and Revenue Foecast Council. The state’s chief economist, Arun Raha, announced that tax collections for the past month have grown $2.5 million above the September forecast.  In a two-year budget of $30 billion, that’s peanuts, of course, but…

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New forecast: State’s bottom line recovering

New forecast: State’s bottom line recovering

It’s entirely due to the recently approved $800 million tax package, but the new state revenue forecast is finally showing some positive numbers. The new report today from the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council shows revenue growth of $558 million during the next fiscal year and an additional $1.9 billion in following 2011-13 biennium. Arun Raha, the council director and the state’s chief economist, told the bipartisan panel of legislators and administration officials that the state and national recovery…

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New WA revenue forecast: Up a bit

New WA revenue forecast: Up a bit

State revenue collections are “bumping along the bottom” and the expected economic recovery is still just around the corner, revenue experts said today in releasing a good news-bad news update. Bottom line is that actual revenue is up a hair, about $31 million since the November forecast, but when combined with an adverse state Supreme Court tax ruling, the new total is  down about $118 million. Coupled with a new caseload forecast this week that requires lawmakers to pony up…

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Ouch: State coffers take another $482m hit

Ouch: State coffers take another $482m hit

Washington’s battered economy is slowly stabilizing, but the state treasury has just taken another $482 million hit and Governor Gregoire has immediately ordered a new round of spending restrictions. The state Economic & Revenue Forecast Council, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers and Gregoire’s revenue and budget directors, has just adopted a grim new update that whacks $185 million from the forecast for the remaining days of the fiscal year and nearly $300 million for the ’09-11 biennium that starts on July 1….

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