By Bryan Schott

It's not news that the state is facing an estimated $850 million budget shortfall in 2010.  But just how far state tax revenues have fallen across the country during the recession is quite shocking. 

This chart from the Rockefeller Institute of Government (below) shows that while GDP is down, state tax revenues have fallen off a cliff in the past year.

The last time the GDP declined that much was during the "double dip" recessions in 1980 and 1982.  Even then, state tax revenues did not fall nearly as much as it has done now.

[Read the full report here]