Quarterly revenue forecasts from the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) in recent years have been a series of incremental good news as Washington’s economy enjoys robust growth. Today’s report is less incremental than it is monumental. For the balance of this biennium and the next, the forecast adds $1.3 billion.
The General Fund-State revenue forecast for the 2017-19 biennium has increased by $647 million, and revenue for the 2019-21 biennium has increased by $671 million.
Forecasted revenue for the 2017-19 biennium is now $44.213 billion, 15.4% more than that of the 2015-17 biennium. Forecasted GF-S revenue for the 2019-21 biennium is now $48.253 billion, 9.1% higher than expected 2017-19 biennial revenue.
In our newsletter Monday we wrote,
We expect the new forecast to show a large increase in anticipated revenues. That could dampen the somewhat surprising legislative discussions of new taxes (capital gains, carbon, soda and more) in this short, supplemental budget year with no revenue shortfall.
