The Administration and non-partisan Office of Legislative Services (OLS) spent yesterday briefing lawmakers about how far short tax collections will be versus expectations, both for this and the next budget year.
The current budget year, which began on July 1, is now predicted to experience a $400 million shortfall. Next year, the estimates range between $3 billion and $4 billion. To put that in perspective, the state had planned to spend $32.9 billion this fiscal year.
As for the state's leading economic forecasters,
During that hearing, financial experts predicted housing prices will continue to fall for almost another year, and that private sector job losses, which have totaled 18,700 so far this year, could exceed 263,000 before the economy starts to turn around.
"It's a bad, bad situation," summarized James Hughes, Dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
While the situation might be bad, it is not totally unexpected. Look for future budget hearings on cuts as predictions are slowly replaced with actual tax receipt numbers.
We need pro-growth policies now as much as ever.
