Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Is Washington's revenue REALLY down?

It is often suggested in some quarters that Washington doesn't really have a revenue problem at all, despite the fact we have had to take budget reductions of more than $10.5 billion over the last three years.  During his presentation at the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council meeting last week, chief economist Arun Raha pretty well dispelled that myth. 

As you can see from the charts below, state revenues are currently way below the 2008 level, and will continue to be lower at least through 2013.  Revenues have also not kept up with population growth, according to Raha.






There is more information available here.

Apture