(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers April 14, 2014)
While most Kansans with real lives are wondering whether the lawnmower will start this year, a bunch of us Statehouse habitués will be waiting to see what is happening to the Kansas tax base.
It’s called the Consensus Revenue Estimate, and it will be released later this week and will predict just what the state is going to have in the way of tax income for the rest of this fiscal year—that’s until July 1—and for the next fiscal year which we’ve cleverly named Fiscal Year 2015.
The CRE, as we call it, is compiled by the state’s fiscal experts with some university help, and it will become the marker for figuring how much the state has to spend.
Now, there’s no doubt that the state will have enough money to pay the bills that come due before July 1. The question is going to be how much money will be available for the next year, and that’s tricky.