March 24, 2017      4:57 PM

Greenfield: State expenditures in FY17

In the second part of his budget analysis, our resident number cruncher Dr. Stuart Greenfield takes a look at expenditures and says halftime growth = -0.3 Percent

Last July when state officials realized that state revenue growth was less than expected, the state’s leadership asked agencies to reduce their budget requests for FY18-19 by 4 percent.  In January, following the release of the Biennial Revenue Estimate, the Governor imposed a hiring freeze on state agencies.  These actions would either reduce future expenditures, the former, or reduce current expenditures, the latter.

Unlike FY17 when all funds expenditures grew by 7.7 percent, see Table 1, expenditures through the first six months of FY17 have declined by 0.3 percent.  These changes in expenditures differ from the LBB all funds expenditures change for FY16 and FY17 of 2.8 percent and -2.8 percent, respectively.  For the current biennium, the LBB expects a 2.9 percent increase in expenditures (209.1 billion).  Using all funds expenditures reported by the Comptroller indicates that the increase will be 11.0 percent, with expenditures totaling $228.8 billion for this biennium.

The full column by Dr. Stuart Greenfield can be read in the R&D Department.

By Dr. Stuart Greenfield

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