Washington Policy Center's Jason Mercier on the state budget revenue drop and the governor's furlough announcement
“We have known for months that the ‘Stay home’ orders were going to drastically impact the state’s economic outlook. This is why we called on the Governor to immediately reopen the state employee contracts to cancel the 3% pay raises due on July 1. The Governor’s actions today to freeze some pay and implement furloughs is a good start but more must be done with the state facing nearly a $9 billion drop in projected revenue through 2023.
The longer the state waits to implement savings, the harder the problem will become to solve. With an adopted 19% increase in spending, the total 2019-21 budget will still spend more than the 2017-19 budget no matter what lawmakers do. Along with eliminating new spending increases, the state should use the emergency reserves and request federal officials provide flexibility for CARES Act funding. It is important these budget reductions happen while avoiding tax increases that would further burden families and employers as they try to recover from the government-imposed economic restrictions."