The revised revenue forecast incorporates actions taken by the 2012 Legislature. I think it’s fundamental to distinguish two sets of changes that underlie this updated forecast:
* One set of changes, of course, reflects variations based on experience and projections for our state’s economy.
* And in the second set of changes, we can identify non-economic reflections of policy maneuvers that were, as I noted above, adopted in recent legislative action.
For our state’s present, 2011-2013 biennium, economic changes amount to $16.1 million. Non-economic changes, variations brought about by the aforementioned legislative activity, result in a projected-revenue increase of $172.3 million. Let’s keep in mind that the updated economic forecast is very similar to the February forecast, and that there is still a great deal of uncertainty, mostly due to out-of-state factors — factors obviously beyond our control.
I want us to keep in mind, also, the fact that Washington added 11,900 jobs between February and May. Construction-employment has stayed pretty flat these past four months, while government employment has continued plunging, going down by another 2,500 jobs.