PA INDEPENDENT: The [Independent Fiscal Office] which serves a number-crunching function similar to the federal Congressional Budget Office – now expects Pennsylvania to finish the year about $150 million short of expectations, with modest job gains and slow wage growth primarily to blame for the sluggish tax collections.
“Things are just a bit weaker on the economics,” said Matthew Knittel, executive director of the IFO. He said the global economic forecast the office uses to make projections has been revised downward, adding to state-specific concerns about weak sales and income tax collections.
In the grand scheme of a $28 billion budget, $150 million is not a huge amount, but in a year like this every dollar will count… (more)
