They seem to be living in fantasy land when they say: "These numbers appear fairly grim, but there are encouraging signs that the State’s situation is reaching

They seem to be living in fantasy land when they say: "These numbers appear fairly grim, but there are encouraging signs that the State’s situation is reaching bottom. Although sales tax revenues were down by more than 50% as compared to last April, consumer spending increased by 2.2% nationwide in the first quarter of 2009. Additionally, retail sales have stabilized in the first three months of this year on a seasonally adjusted basis." Maybe so, but your state sales tax revenues are down 50% YoY! So what if the Feds want to say that consumer spending was up 2.2% in April (a number that is suspect precisely because of state sales tax numbers).