Grocery, gas and housing prices are up this year. The stock market is down. Voters are souring on the economy, and some analysts are warning of a looming recession.
But most state budget analysts aren’t too worried. Tax collections are still coming in strong, and states have saved so much money — thanks to economic growth and a flood of federal COVID-19 aid — that there’ll be plenty to spend on schools, Medicaid and other services this fiscal year.
Take Arkansas, which, thanks to record-breaking tax collections last year and this year, has almost $3 billion in budget reserves. That’s about half what the state spends in a typical year.
