CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Lawmakers will have slightly more room to expand their general fund spending under current law after a state panel on Wednesday came up with a revised forecast of revenue.
The state’s Economic Forum, a panel that provides forecasts for the state’s general fund revenue, met Wednesday and approved a forecast that increased a December projection of theirs by an extra $42.8 million for fiscal years 2019 through 2021.
Lawmakers could use those funds in building the next two-year budget, said Russell Guindon with the Legislative Counsel Bureau.
The Economic Forum, a panel of five economic and taxation experts from the private sector, was created during the 1993 Legislature. All state agencies, including the governor and the legislature, are required to use the forum’s forecasts.
A budget from Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak states that 35 percent of revenue sources for the 2019-2021 budget come from the general fund.
Sisolak’s budget outlines a 3 percent cost of living pay increase for public school employees and a 2 percent merit pay raise.
But The Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities estimates that budget is short $107.5 million in providing those increases while keeping per-pupil funding the same.
Kenneth Retzl, director of education policy at the center, said the figure is a base estimate for the shortfall because it does not include other factors like inflation.
Sisolak said in a statement that the Economic Forum report Wednesday shows the state “has the fastest growing economy in the country and continues to outpace the rest of the nation in terms of job growth.”
“For the remainder of this session, the legislature and I will work together to build a structure upon which we can transform the way we fund our schools in the years ahead,” his statement said.
Dan White, director of government consulting and fiscal policy research at Moody’s Analytics, told the Economic Forum that Nevada is seeing exceptional rates of job growth.
“Nevada is the fastest-growing economy in the country right now, in terms of just the overall number of jobs that are coming online,” he said.
He described the U.S. economy as strong and told the panel that the country has one of the tightest labor markets it has ever seen. Yet he also predicted a recession or an economic slowdown by the end of 2020.
A tight labor market is generally when recruitment for open jobs becomes more difficult for businesses.
Republican Assemblyman Jim Wheeler issued a statement saying Sisolak and other Democrats are “trying to spend more money than is available.”
“Governor Sisolak’s promise of no new taxes is going to be put to the test based on today’s report,” Wheeler said in the statement.
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