Lisa Brown estimates budget shortfall at close to $8 billion…

Three months after a state revenue forecast left Washington looking at a $5.7 billion budget shortfall over the next year and a half, a top legislator says she expects things to be $2 billion worse when that forecast is updated in about 15 minutes.

“I don’t think it’s any surprise that we’re getting a couple billion dollars of bad news in about an hour,” Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said at a meeting with capitol reporters at her office.