Lieutenant governor outlines budget proposal. (Daily Union, 5/8/2015)
Quote source: Daily Union
Photo credit: State of Wisconsin
Guess she missed at least 2 Legislative Fiscal Bureau memos.
1/23/2015 memo to co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Finance.
Based upon the November report, the administration's general fund condition statement for 2014 -15 reflects a gross ending balance (June 30, 2015) of -$132.1 million.
Our analysis indicates a gross balance of -$ 283.4 million for 2014-15. This is $ 151 .3 million below that of the administration's report. The 2014-15 general fund condition statement is shown in Table 1.
5/6/2015 memo to co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Finance.
For 2014-15, the January estimates projected tax collection growth of 3.7% over 2013-14. Through April, 2015, year-to-date collections are running at 3.3 %. As tax processing is completed and the remaining months of collections are realized , the year-to-date growth rate should increase somewhat, and it is possible that 2014-15 collections may exceed the January estimate. However, IHS Global Insight Inc.'s recent forecasts of the U.S. economy have been downgraded from the January forecast, which was used in preparing the current tax revenue estimates. Most significantly, the April forecast of growth in national personal income is lower than the January forecast by 0.5% in calendar year 2015, 0.6% in 2016, and 0.2% in 2017. The forecast of growth in personal consumpt ion expenditures has been decreased by 0.7%, 0.2%, and 0.1%, respec tively, for those three years.
Therefore, if there is any additional revenue in the current year, it will likely be offset by State of Wisconsin reduced growth rates in 2015-16 and 2016-17. On balance, we believe that the current estimates for the three-year period are still reasonable and should not be adjusted. [Emphasis added.]
And then there's this national report.
Wisconsin’s Revenue May Make It Harder for Walker to Crow. (Bloomberg Business, 5/6/2015)
Walker and allies who control the legislature would have been buoyed by a more robust forecast. That could’ve softened unpopular trims to primary and secondary education as well as the University of Wisconsin contained in the governor’s two-year budget proposal.
