Legislative – 6-22-18

It’s the third week of June and all is eerily quiet on the state budget front. Driving the lack of headlines is a budget devoid of any major tax increases or anything else of controversy, and good revenue news from Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office. On Monday, the IFO released its official revenue estimate of $33.9 billion for fiscal year 2018-19 and forecasted some relatively positive developments in the state’s economy. Among those are an increase in GDP of 2.3 percent in 2018 and 2.2 percent in 2019 and an increase in wages/salaries of PA residents of 4.3 percent and 4.2 percent over this year and next. Finally, payroll employment is expected to expand by 62,500 jobs this year and 57,000 in 2019.