A new analysis of the state’s finances released yesterday (1/26) by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) projects that state revenues over the current fiscal year and the next two fiscal years comprising the 2021-23 biennial budget will be $1.156 billion higher overall, than earlier estimates released in November by the state Department of Administration (DOA). That will ease pressures on state finances somewhat and could mean lawmakers will be able to provide some of those additional revenues to fund schools in the upcoming 2021-23 biennium.
In a memo to the co-chairs of the legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, LFB Director Bob Lang wrote that the state is now expected to finish the current fiscal year on June 30, 2021 with a gross balance of nearly $1.9 billion, compared to more than $1.2 billion that been had projected back in November.
Lang noted that revenue collections in the current fiscal year are now expected to be $437.4 million more than what the Department of Administration had projected in November. Further, the state is now projected to spend about $190.7 million less than had previously been forecast.
