Montana lawmakers said the COVID-19 impacts were underestimated when presented by state officials the budget for the next two years, but thanks to unspent reserve money, Montana should be able to manage the impacts of the pandemic.
But Amy Carlson, legislative fiscal analyst, said most of the impacts will be seen in fiscal year 2021, according to the Billings Gazette.
While the unspent reserve money equals about $190 million, Carlson said the impacts of the coronavirus could be much greater than that amount and estimates from Moody's Analytics forecast show a drop in state revenue between 15.4% and 18.7%.
Rep. Greg Hertz said the state shouldn't wait too long before deciding on what route to take, because the impacts could be much worse than anticipated, according to the Gazette.
“I really think we need to start working on a projection to assume some different scenarios,” Hertz told the paper. “Whether it’s a 10% revenue loss, a 15% or 20%, because I think we’re going to need to accelerate at an extremely fast rate or we’re going to get run over and we’re going to have a real bad train wreck in the next legislative session.”
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