Texas faces a looming $4.6 billion deficit, comptroller projects

[TexasTowelie]

by Cassandra Pollock, Texas Tribune


Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar delivered bleak but unsurprising news Monday: Because of the economic fallout triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the amount of general revenue available for the state’s current two-year budget is projected to be roughly $11.5 billion less than originally estimated. That puts the state on track to end the biennium, which runs through August 2021, with a deficit of nearly $4.6 billion, Hegar said.

Those figures are a significant downward revision from Hegar’s last revenue estimate in October 2019, when the comptroller said the state would have over $121 billion to spend on its current budget and end the biennium with a surplus of nearly $2.9 billion. The state, Hegar said, will now have roughly $110 billion to work with for the current budget.

Hegar’s latest estimate, he stressed in a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders, carries “an unprecedented amount of uncertainty” and could change drastically in the coming months, thanks to the pandemic and, to a lesser extent, a recent drop in oil prices.

“We have had to make assumptions about the economic impact of COVID-19, the duration and effects of which remain largely unknown,” Hegar wrote. “Our forecast assumes restrictions [on businesses and people] will be lifted before the end of this calendar year, but that economic activity will not return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this biennium.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/20/texas-deficit-comptroller/

[Make7]

1. Unfortunately, I believe that will turn out to be optimistic. ( n/t )

[onecaliberal]

2. They can just declare bankruptcy. Like their ole pal Moscow Mitch said.

[Grins]

3. Another damn 'libural' state that can't manage its money...

...and expects the rest of us to bail them ou...

Oh, wait...