The co-chairmen of the Legislature's joint Economic Outlook & Revenue Assessment Committee presented their report to JFAC today, and the budget committee voted unanimously to accept the report, while noting that it'll decide later on setting the state's budget. Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, told JFAC that the panel accepted Gov. Butch Otter's revised revenue projection for this year of 4.4 percent growth, and then set its estimate for next year at a point between the governor's projection and the median of the estimates each individual committee member had set; that comes in $33.3 million below the governor's figure. "We've had more positive revenue numbers available after we set that median," Goedde explained. "There was some optimism on the part of the committee. They moved that number up." He said, "We did not have the December numbers when we made the original projection, and there was some consensus that those December numbers were more positive than what we might have been led to believe prior to seeing them."

JFAC Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, told Goedde and Co-Chairman Rep. Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, "I don't envy you this task. ... We appreciate it."