From the Indianapolis Business Journal:
We’re just a few short weeks from the mid-April revenue forecast, the critical non-political, non-policy factor that will shape the fiscal 2014-2015 budget—and a handful of other big-buck key bills.
Absent a finding of an immediate economic upswing by the Revenue Forecast Technical Committee based upon models provided by the state’s contract economic forecaster, lawmakers will trudge back to their respective chambers to complete the bulk of the session’s fiscal work in April’s final two weeks.
While no one knows what the bipartisan consensus forecast will portend, the December outlook was a bit more optimistic than some had expected. While there was no display of “irrational exuberance” projected into fiscal measures, it gave Gov. Mike Pence cause to believe his signature 10-percent individual-income-tax-rate-cut proposal could be accommodated in the budget.
Of course, Republican legislative leaders assumed the role of ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso, echoing the famous “Not so fast, my friend” mantra of the former Indiana University head football coach. If the April forecast suggested sufficient cash would be generated over the biennium, they wanted to consider other priorities, including simply eliminating (instead of phasing out) the inheritance tax, and making additional corporate tax cuts.
But any serious decisions on significant tax cuts await the forecast, as do a multitude of other spending decisions.
The forecast will play a key role in determining how much money the General Assembly can add back to education funding.
While Pence has proposed a 1-percent increase in the K-12 budget over the prior biennium, lawmakers of both parties scoff at the amount, reminding him that the previous budget had cut education spending some $300 million, a shortfall that legislative Republicans are taking the lead in seeking to restore.
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See the full article here:
http://www.ibj.com/feigenbaum-all-eyes-looking-to-crucial-mid-april-revenue-forecast/PARAMS/article/40310
