Otter: Economy dimming, leaving his 2009 budget $82 million short

POSTED: 08:03 MST Friday, February 15, 2008

by Associated Press

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Tags - Butch Otter, economy, Legislature

The outlook for Idaho's economy is dimming. In new figures released yesterday by Governor Butch Otter's office, tax revenue for the current fiscal year is expected to grow by just 1.8 percent – less than half the growth forecast in January.

And for fiscal year 2009 that starts in July, Otter's economists say tax revenue growth will slide to 2.8 percent – down from a previously predicted 3.4 percent.

With only $2.9 billion expected to be coming into the state, that leaves about $82 million short of cash to fund all the things he wants in his 2009 budget.

Wayne Hammon, Otter's budget chief, says that means everybody will have to compromise.

Hammon says, “There's a lot of stuff there that we're going to have to trim.”

4 Comments

That's right,If you don't have enough money, you cut back your spending. How basic. We need to teach the Federal level
of our government the same lesson.All the "pork barrel" & "special interest" spending needs to be scrutinized.
Comment By Bill Stafford
Friday, February 15, 2008 @ 12:42 PM

It's just the beginning folks. You are about to see what happens when you don't invest in the industries that have kept Idaho in the black.
Comment By Truth Teller
Friday, February 15, 2008 @ 1:05 PM

Two bad we don't have a few hundred megawatts of power laying around. Those two manufacturers who passed us over for New Mexico last fall would have created a couple of thousand well-paying jobs. We can thank the radical enviros for killing every energy project that comes along and keeping us dependent on imported fossil power.
Comment By Been there
Friday, February 15, 2008 @ 1:10 PM

But...but, where's that omniscient seer, fortune teller, and all-around economic fakir, Mike Ferguson, state economic mouthpiece, er..forecaster?
Comment By Tom
Saturday, February 16, 2008 @ 9:57 AM

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