NASHVILLE – Economists are projecting that Tennessee government likely will see another large budget surplus in the current fiscal year and healthy revenue growth in the next.
Members of the Tennessee State Funding Board were presented the estimates Friday as the officials prepare to recommend tax-and-fee growth parameters to guide Gov. Bill Haslam and state lawmakers when dealing with the remainder of the current fiscal year and fashioning the upcoming 2016-2017 budget.
The most optimistic projections for Tennessee’s current-year general fund, which pays for most government operations like education and TennCare, came from economist Robert Currey with the General Assembly’s Fiscal Review Committee.
Currey estimates this year’s surplus would be $422 million for the fiscal year that will end June 30, 2016. It’s already more than halfway there, with administration officials announcing later in the day Friday that the general fund already is running $210 million over projections in just the first three months of this fiscal year.
Bill Fox with the University of Tennessee’s Center for Business and Economic Research pegged the surplus at $370 million. And, relying on economists in the department he runs, state Revenue Commissioner Richard Roberts projected a $340 million surplus.