In a joint meeting with House and Senate Committees on Revenue, on May 15, State Economist, Mark McMullen and Senior Economist, Josh Lehner for the Office of Economic Analysis (OEA) presented the quarterly revenue forecast.

The quarterly revenue forecast serves as the main forecast that sets the budget for the next biennium and sets the kicker base. OEA presented that revenues are up almost $870 million in additional resources in this current biennium, lottery revenues are up nearly $20-30 million per biennium, and the kicker is set to be the largest in history at $1.4 billion.

McMullen commented, “we have one really good piece of news that comes out of it, and that’s the reserve situation here in Oregon. This ending balance adds to an already large cushion of reserves. So, at this point right now, we would estimate we end the current biennium with $3.5 billion in reserves, which is by far and away larger than anything Oregon has ever enjoyed before, hopefully giving us a little bit of a cushion before the downturn that is still to come.”

To watch the Revenue Forecast, click here. To view the OEA presentation to the House and Senate committees, click here.

Contributed by: Megan Chuinard | Public Affairs Associate