Missouri pares back revenue projections

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Missouri officials are ratcheting back their expectations for the state's finances while forecasting modest growth for the future.

Gov. Jay Nixon said Thursday that he has agreed on new revenue projections with budget leaders from the Missouri House and Senate. That agreement is noteworthy, because the Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers were unable to reach a consensus revenue estimate a year ago.

The officials now are predicting Missouri revenues of $8.37 billion for the 2015 fiscal year that runs through June. That's down about $367 million from what Nixon originally had forecast and down about $218 million from what lawmakers originally predicted.

The governor and legislators are predicting the state's 2016 revenues to grow by about 3.6 percent over that revised forecast for 2015.