alexisholzer

Forecast Council ‘increasingly pessimistic’ about economy

The state’s Revenue and Economic Forecast Council issued a new report Friday that only serves to fuel speculation the September 15th revenue forecast could dramatically reduce state revenues. The quarterly economic review, found here, generally informs the revenue forecast which follows a week or two later. It is thought next week’s forecast could drop anticipated […]

Tax collections slip by $9 million

We’re a bit late in posting this – WSU’s government relations team just wrapped up a four-day, three campus tour for legislative and congressional staff – but state tax collection for the past month have fallen short of projections by $9 million. It’s not a huge number. But add that to the shortfall witnessed a […]

Update on Debt Ceiling

Voting is underway in Washington DC on the deal that was struck late last night on raising the debt ceiling.  McBee Strategic has provided this detailed analysis and below are a few more notable points to be aware of. • President Obama reached an agreement with Congressional leaders last night on a multi-step deficit-reduction package […]

Debt Ceiling and WSU

As you know, the U.S. Congress and President Obama are in negotiations regarding the debt ceiling.  This discussion  includes many proposals to cut federal spending and The House of Representatives have begun to pass legislation to eliminate programs or funding of programs.  As a result, many of you may receive notifications from professional organizations that […]

Debt Ceiling Q&A

This Debt Ceiling Q&A document was written by our federal lobbyist group at McBee Strategic.  The WSU Government Affairs team found it informative and hope you will find it likewise.  Please keep in mind that the section describing possible outcomes was written before July 19th and there may be different options being discussed and finally […]

Federal Farm Bill

Federal Farm Bill discussions are beginning throughout the nation and in Washington State.  See this Seattle Times article for information on the debate of farm subsidies and federal spending cuts.

State reserve accounts fall again

The state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council this morning adopted a new projection of tax collections that dropped anticipated reserve accounts from about $730 million to just $163 million. This comes not even a day after the governor signed the state’s new two year budget into law. You can find the forecast here. If there […]

Governor signs operating, capital budgets

Gov. Chris Gregoire yesterday afternoon signed into law the operating and capital budgets approved by the Legislature last month. TVW live blogged the event and you can read about the governor’s comments here. There were no major surprises for WSU in the veto messages for either bill. You can check out a breakdown of what […]