BATON ROUGE — Louisiana’s income forecasting panel will soon set the official number for this year’s budget deficit and next year’s financial shortfall.
The figures set Wednesday by the Revenue Estimating Conference will be the basis for tax negotiations in the upcoming special legislative session.
The revised forecasts are expected to be bleak, with at least a $700 million deficit expected for this year and a nearly $2 billion gap next year, possibly larger.
This year’s shortfall has to be closed by June 30, when the budget year ends.
Gov. John Bel Edwards has called a special session to begin Sunday, to rebalance this year’s budget and to start work on closing next year’s shortfall.
The Democratic governor is asking lawmakers to raise taxes, but Republicans are showing reticence to tax hikes.