The Technical Advisory Committee to the Economic Forum was told Wednesday a significant number of Nevada’s General Fund revenue streams are recovering better than expected before the Legislature convened.
The so-called TAC is a group of finance professionals that project revenues for more than 70 of the General Fund’s non-major revenue streams.
LCB Chief Economist Russell Guindon told the panel headed by Finance Office Director Susan Brown lawmakers and the governor will have $80.5 million more General Fund dollars to spend in the upcoming biennium.
In addition, he told them they have $74.6 million more than originally projected through the current biennium that ends June 30. But the majority of that money comes from just one place: the net proceeds of mines tax.
When the economic crunch hit, lawmakers passed legislation requiring the mines to pre-pay this fiscal year’s net proceeds tax. The original estimate was that tax would come in at about $130 million. Instead, it came in at $177.7 million, pumping some $47.5 million unexpected dollars into this year’s General Fund.
Altogether, that is $155.1 million more than the December Economic Forum projected the General Fund would have.
That’s also a good sign that when the forum meets May 4, the major General Fund revenue streams will also go up from December.
Those majors include the sales and use tax, gaming percentage fee, live entertainment tax, modified business tax, real property transfer tax and insurance premium tax.
The TAC’s projections will be presented to the full Economic Forum on May 4. Those projections must be used by lawmakers and the governor to build the biennial state budget. If lawmakers want to spend more, they must find the money by passing a tax increase or some other revenue generator.
