The state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council reported today that tax collections for the past month came in just $9.5 million below expectations but hinted that a significant downturn in expected revenue is in the offing.
The Council is due to release its quarterly revenue forecast at 10 a.m. Thursday. It is thought that it could decrease expected revenue through the end of the brand new two-year budget cycle by as much as $2 billion. Though less than the $5 billion hole the Legislature just plugged, it would be a significant number because so many methods for balancing the budget – including tuition increases – already have been deployed for the biennium.
Total tax collections since the June forecast have been just $40 million below expectations. But an expected national slowdown in economic activity is drawing itself out and “estimates of national growth for the remainder of this year and the following year have been revised down sharply,” the Council wrote in its report.
“We do not, therefore, expect future revenues to come in close to the levels forecasted in June,” it wrote.