Revenue Projections
NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) - The panel that sets Delaware's official revenue projections is meeting to update the state's official financial forecast.
Members of the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council are scheduled to gather Monday for their first meeting of the year.
The group last met in December, when it increased its revenue estimate for the current year by $37.7 million from its previous forecast. It also added about $20 million to its revenue forecast for the fiscal year starting July 1.
Those numbers were the basis for Gov. Jack Markell's January budget proposal, which is now being reviewed by state lawmakers.
But lawmakers are still staring at a possible $63 million hole in the proposed budget involving a tax refund request from a large, unnamed corporation.
House Committee Hearing
Meanwhile, this week the House Finance and Revenue Committee in Dover will be looking at whether several recession recession-era tax hikes should be made permanent.
That’s a key part of Governor Jack Markell’s $3.7 billion spending plan as the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council is set to produce new revenue estimates today.
This could be extremely important given the possibility that the federal government could be cutting as much as $18 million as a result of the sequester coming out of Washington.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that the Governor’s tax plan would produce $27.9 million next year and $156 million the year after if the taxes are made permanent.
The paper reports that Republicans are likely to oppose higher taxes.
They would argue business has already been hit by higher workers’ compensation insurance rates, higher federal taxes to repay a $78 million debt from the state’s unemployment trust fund and higher health care costs from implementation of the federal health care reform act.
