State tax revenues are continuing to lag in Ohio. June is the last month of the state budget year, and we now have the report for the first 11 months. It now appears that tax revenues will fall 20 percent in the two year period ending in a few weeks.

This budget year tax revenues are expected to be $15.9 billion by June 30th. Last year they were $17 billion.  The year before they were $19.4 billion.

This is an extremely serious budget problem for our state.  It continues to get little attention in the legislature.

Is there any kind of silver lining in the tax revenue numbers?  Maybe. For the months of April and May this year tax revenues were actually showing growth compared to the same months last year. This is a rather short trend, but could be an indication of the start of economic recovery. However, this is not much to write home about, as the April revenues were about 24 percent below April, 2008 and May was more than eight percent below 2008.