You probably had a good weekend, once you got the lawnmower started or found the bucket and soap you use to wash the car.
It was a lot like that at the Statehouse, too, after the release Friday of the state’s March revenues. Those revenues, at $425 million, were just about $8.5 million less than predicted. That was the best news that the folks who have to manage the state’s budget had heard for a while.
Now, getting $8.5 million less than you expected isn’t always good news… Most of us would have to bag lunch for the month, but in a state that had been worried about a shortfall for the month of tens of millions of dollars, the slight slip was almost a gift.
Reason that the shortfall is good news is that it means there might not be any more substantial bad news for…well, almost two weeks, when that cash-in, cash-out monthly revenue figure is turned into the prediction for state revenues for the remainder of this fiscal year.