House and Senate Appropriators have come up with a Legislative revenue forecast, that will help guide final spending decisions for this Legislative session.
That, after Moody’s Analytics and S and P Global presented their outlooks for state revenues.
"We took the balance between those two and averaged it out," said Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Brad Bekkedahl (R-Williston). "It looks like about $74 million less in general fund revenue for the 25-27 biennium, compared to our January forecast."
But Bekkedahl said there is also some good news.
"We have some turnback that's coming back, that wasn't accounted for," Bekkedahl said. "That will bring another $100 million back, so overall, we'll be about $25 million above."
The turnback is unspent money by state agencies.
Bekkedahl said the committees will still have to find some reductions in proposed spending.
"We're still over-spent at crossover by $300 million in the general fund, and $50 million in the SIIF (Strategic Investment and Infrastructure) Fund," Bekkedahl said. "So we still have to make some cuts ."
And Bekkedahl said that's just to make the budget balance.
"If we want to leave an ending fund balance, we'll have to make more than that in cuts as well," Bekkedahl said. "My number for the Appropriations people is cutting between $400 and $500 million from where we're at today."
Bekkedahl said he’s told his Appropriations committee members it is time to start focusing on needs, not wants.
"So, if you start seeing some things coming through agency budgets or in stand-alone bills, that in your mind could wait a biennium or two, that could be put in the 'want' category," Bekkedahl said. "That might be the easiest way to make decisions. The decisions have to be made at this point."
Bekkedahl said this is not unusual – normally at crossover, the proposed spending is more than the available funds.
