“Besides the impact on the people and families who lost those jobs, the February job losses are almost sure to have an impact on payroll witholdings in March, which will drag down individual income tax collections. And without those payrolls flowing into people’s pocketbooks, it’s unlikely that sales tax revenues will come in as projected either.
“But that may not be the worst of the story. Budget and tax analysts in the Legislature’s nonpartisan Research Department have been saying all year that the months to worry about are yet to come: April, May and June, which make up the last quarter of the fiscal year…
“Meanwhile, there is still the school finance issue to worry about…
“[T]here is so much animosity among conservative Republican lawmakers that the House bill died in the Appropriations Committee. The Senate Ways and Means Committee had more luck getting its bill out and sending it to the full Senate for consideration. But it takes the $38 million price tag directly out of base state aid for school districts, effectively cutting every district’s spending authority by about 1.5 percent.
“Even if that bill were to pass the full Senate, which cannot be assumed, it would still face an uphill battle in the House because a) it cuts overall spending authority for districts, which is certain to be unpopular among constituents during an election year; and b) it’s still predicated on restoring the old equalization formula that GOP conservatives say they don’t like.”
Read more here: http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/capitol-report/2016/mar/20/budget-issues-school-finance-loom-as-leg/.