The state Economic and Revenue Forecast will meet Monday, May 18 at 2:30 to adopt the new official revenue forecast. This is a month ahead of the previously scheduled June 17 meeting.
The Olympian reports lawmakers this may help break the budget deadlock.
Moving up the revenue forecast “gives us more certainty,” said Sen. Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville.
Still,
House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, said Thursday that he expects that Monday’s forecast will only reveal about a $100 million to $200 million increase in state revenue collections over earlier estimates, which he said isn’t much in the context of a $38 billion to $39 billion state budget.
…over the three months since the last update collections have exceeded forecast by about $60 million. Based on this, I expect the new forecast will add somewhat more than $100 million to the resources available to budget writers as they craft the 2015–17 budget.
At this point, everything helps. After all, $100 million isn’t nothing.
