No one should be surprised these days whenever the state reports new budget deficit numbers.

At least, that's what they think over at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

Since 2000, the CTBA each year has modeled what state spending and revenues would add up to over the succeeding five years.

"So far, but for changes in law, our estimates of where the deficit would be and that other stuff has been within 1 percent every year," CTBA Executive Director Ralph M. Martire says. "That's a pretty good margin of error."

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