Grim news was expected - and delivered - from the Revenue Estimating Conference Monday afternoon. The state's forecasting panel determined a $103 million dollar reduction in the current fiscal year.
"We had weakened oil prices and we've gotten a pretty good picture of those figures, and the news is, is bad," the state's chief economist Greg Albrecht told committee members. The Jindal administration will now be forced to make cuts in the next few weeks for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The impact of plummeting oil prices tacked on an additional $203 million for next fiscal year's deficit. The overall shortfall was adjusted to $1.6 billion for 2015-16.
