Oregon’s budget increased because of federal tax hike on wealthy

Oregon lawmakers delivered some great financial news this past Friday, allowing some room to breathe with the budget.

The state’s economists have said that the state revenues are supposed to come in at $162 million higher in the latest biennium because of the tax increases on the wealthy that was implemented by Congress. The tax increases will have an effect on filers in 2013, which influenced a sell-off of assets at the end of 2012. This gave a sudden increase to state tax receipts.

The sell-off will eventually lead to a reduction of $75 million in the revenue outlook for the next two years. Adding it up, the lawmakers will have about $88 million more to use for Oregon as they start to develop a budget for the 2013-2015 biennium. This is not a bailout, but rather a difficult choice that had to be made. Oregon has experienced some bad news in its finances in the past four years, and it’s nice to have this good financial news drop on them.

Senate President Peter Courtney mentioned that this forecast is a positive net gain because every single penny will help Oregon, parting the clouds a little to help the sun shine enter.

Overall, Oregon’s state general fund is supposed to hit around $16.6 billion for 2013 through 2015. That’s about a 9% increase from the current budget of $15.2 billion. There’s expected to be larger tax collections in the new few months because of higher earners pushing more of their income into 2012.