Oregon lawmakers are in Salem this week, chewing over what looming budget cuts might mean for hundreds of state programs. But state economists on Wednesday offered hope that at least some of those cuts can be taken off the table.
Stronger than anticipated corporate tax receipts and an expected improvement in the nation’s economic picture have mostly closed a $373 million hole in the state’s current budget that economists predicted three months ago.
The state’s Office of Economic Analysis now says it expects $310 million of that deficit to be filled by revenues that look better than they did in August. That jump is largely driven by a surge in businesses paying taxes they owed from previous years…