Infographic: For State Budgets, A Long Road Back to Peak Revenue

For about a year, state revenues have been on the rebound. That’s good news for anyone involved in crafting a state budget. Here’s the bad news: Revenues dropped so far during the Great Recession that most states have a long way to go before they return to their pre-recession peak. 

The graph below shows when states fell into this revenue trough, and the earliest time they expect to finally climb out of it. It is based on the National Conference of State Legislatures’ March survey of state legislative fiscal directors. States are ranked by the number of years they expect to be below peak revenues.