Utah’s latest revenue projections released today at the state legislature are slightly lower than previously expected.
Last November the state projected that ongoing revenue for the state’s general and education funds would be about $300 million, but the latest estimate brings that number down more than $35 million. Executive Appropriations Committee Co-Chair, Senator Lyle Hillyard, says the new numbers reflect what will happen if sequestration goes into effect this Friday and the loss of revenue due to the failure to extend some of the Bush-era tax cuts. He also says there are still other unknown factors that could bring the number down even more.
“If people for example, if there is a furlough a few days at Hill field, or something like that, the psychological impact we really have no idea about," he says. "So, we’ll be watching the figures very closely.”
On top of that, $25 million has to be subtracted to fix an accounting error that lawmakers discovered after the end of last year’s legislative session. That brings the estimate down even further to about $240 million of ongoing revenue. The only place they saw an increase was in one-time spending which rose from an estimate of $121 million to $161 million for this year.
