As reported here in today's Helena IR, state government revenue collections aren't quite what the Legislature had hoped for back in April.
At this point, it's impossible to know exactly where the state is financially because the fiscal year just ended on June 30. There will be money that comes in that is 2009 money, not the current fiscal year of 2010. Still, there are signs that collections won't be as high as expected. We may be dipping into that $300 million budget ending-fund balance sooner than many thought.
The shortfall can be attributed to lower collections in personal income taxes, sin taxes, natural resource and oil taxes. Many of the graphs looked okay this time last year, but collections have been way down in the past six months. The state revenue analyst said this made him worry about fiscal year 2010 and 2011.
We can take comfort that Montana isn't seeing the budget woes of states like California. Generally, Montana lags behind the rest of the country when going into a recession and often lags coming out as well. Let's hope Montana leads the country out of this one.
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