Revenue and Fiscal Affairs reports near-forecast revenues, advances aerial imagery and census work

Frank Rainwater, director of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs, told the legislative subcommittee his agency currently has no new budget request but highlighted several ongoing projects and analyses.

Rainwater said the agency is entering the third three-year cycle of a statewide aerial imagery project that began with roughly $1,000,000 in seed money provided about eight years ago; the imagery is available online and counties and state agencies use it for mapping and other purposes. He also said his office is already meeting with the U.S. Census Bureau on technical work to ensure addresses and census blocks are current for the 2030 census.

On fiscal work, Rainwater described two proviso-directed analyses his office completed or released: an analysis of open-ended aid to fire districts that has been drawing on surplus, and a study of weightings between public school district and charter school funding (the latter report has been shared with education subcommittee staff). He said the Board of Economic Advisors will consider the revenue forecast on Thursday and that current revenues are running very close to estimates — within just over 1% — with limited leeway going forward.

In response to a question about gaining another congressional seat, Rainwater said an in-depth apportionment calculation was not done but preliminary review suggested another seat might not materialize until around 2040, dependent on growth relative to other states.

Committee members thanked Rainwater for the overview; no budget action was taken at the hearing.