NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - State Budget Surplus Could Exceed $500M

State Budget Surplus Could Exceed $500M

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee could have more than a half billion dollars worth of higher-than-expected revenue collections by the time the state budget year ends in June.

Such projections were presented Monday to the State Funding Board. 

It's scheduled to settle Tuesday on revenue projections for the remainder of the current budget year and for the one beginning in July. 

The panel heard from University of Tennessee economist Bill Fox, the General Assembly's Fiscal Review Committee and the state Department of Revenue. 

The three analysts projected between $253 million and $348 million in higher-than-expected revenue collections in the current year.

The projection that the panel settles on will be in addition to $318 million already anticipated by Gov. Phil Bredesen's budget proposal in February. 

The new revenue is largely based on booming corporate taxes that analysts said is notoriously difficult to predict. 

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)