The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget projected last week that the current fiscal year’s budget will run a $267 million deficit. The budget office recommended taking “immediate” action to plug the hole.

And the problem gets much worse in the future, with a $2.2 billion projected deficit for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

So what’s going on? Earlier last week, the Legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reported that state corporate income tax receipts are absolutely tanking this fiscal year.

Corporate income tax receipts for the first quarter of the fiscal year were a whopping $215 million (net) lower than the same period during the previous fiscal year, the commission reported.

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