Joint committee prepares to vote on state revenue estimate

The Legislature’s joint Economic Outlook & Revenue Projection Committee is meeting this afternoon to make its decision on a revenue forecast, for purposes of the state budget for next year. Gov. Butch Otter’s forecast came in at 5.4 percent general fund revenue growth for the current year, fiscal 2017; 4.6 percent for next year, fiscal 2018; and 4.8 percent for fiscal 2019. That’s $3.354545 billion for the current year; $3.507437 billion for fiscal year 2018; and $3.677531 billion for fiscal 2019.

Members of the joint revenue committee each made their own estimate. The median of those estimates came in 3 percent below the governor’s estimate for the current year, at 5.1 percent growth; for fiscal year 2018, it was about $16.8 million above the governor’s forecast, at 5.4 percent growth; and for fiscal year 2019, the committee median again was above the governor’s forecast, at 4.8 percent growth. That’s $3.3449 billion for the current year; $3.5242 billion for fiscal 2018; and $3.7188 billion for fiscal 2019.

The key figure is the fiscal 2018 revenue, as that’s the year lawmakers will be budgeting for during this year’s session.