Wyoming’s Consensus Revenue Estimating Group says there is good news and bad news with this year’s revenue forecast. General fund revenue is forecast to increase by over 37 million dollars. CREG Co-Chairman Dan Noble says the forecast looks good for sales and use tax and other things.
“Mineral valuations for oil are excellent, we are actually projecting around a 14 and a half percent increase in oil. Gas is continuing to climb as it relates to production, pricing is pretty stable. Coal, we are down from 400-million tons to 380-million tons.”
Noble says the state expects to see a decrease in federal mineral royalties. Overall they project a shortfall of four million dollars that’s needed to meet legislative budget requirements. But Noble says reserve funding and capital gains should be able to make up that difference.