“Personally, we have soybeans growing on our family farm this year on the Eastern Shore, and they may very well stay in the fields if we can’t sell them,” said Northam, who leases about 65 acres in Accomack County for rotating crops.

Two sources that produce 80% of state revenues — payroll withholding and sales taxes — came up almost $37 million short of their projected growth in the last fiscal year, but they are projected to grow at a faster rate this year than they increased in the last one.

“Unless our trends change, I would think it would be a more conservative forecast going forward,” Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne said in an interview.

In briefing the committees, Layne said the revenues available to the state “may be cut a little bit” because the state is likely to gain less new revenue than it expects in the current budget.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, agreed that the current projections for revenue growth are “overly optimistic”

“A surplus does not mean there is money to spend, so there’s not much to be excited about,” Jones said in a statement by Republican leaders.