Washington lawmakers facing projected $500-million budget shortfall



OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state lawmakers are facing a projected budget shortfall of nearly $500 million for the next two-year budget ending in mid-2019, not counting the expected financial obligation needed to increase funding for education as directed by the state Supreme Court.

The budget outlook released Wednesday by the Washington state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council showed that the current two-year budget that ends in the middle of 2017 will have a surplus of about $357 million. But the following two-year budget projection shows a shortfall of $474 million.

The outlook was released along with the state's updated revenue forecast for Washington state's current two-year $38 billion budget cycle, which showed that income projection increased by just over $100 million since September's forecast for the current biennium that in the summer of 2017.