The Economic Forum met Dec. 5 to review final fiscal-year 2025 collections and early FY2026 receipts. Fiscal Analysis Division staff told members that net general fund collections for FY2025 ended roughly $22 million below the May 1 forecast but that two unusual items explained most of the difference: an $83 million shortfall in commerce-tax receipts caused by a payment-system problem compounded by a state cyber incident, and an unusually large unclaimed-property transfer of about $135 million into the general fund.

"Commerce tax collections came in significantly below forecast by about $83,000,000," Haley Owens, deputy fiscal analyst, said during the presentation. She told members the Department of Taxation has since distributed almost $90 million of commerce tax to the general fund in FY2026 as the payment and reconciliation issues were resolved.

Staff characterized the $135 million in unclaimed-property receipts as largely a one-time acceleration tied to 2023 legislative changes that sped transfers to the treasurer; they expect collections to return to roughly $65 million in future years. "We expect this to be a one time increase in revenue in fiscal year 25," Owens said.

On the year-to-date FY2026 picture, staff reported the general fund was about $102,461,386 (6.9%) above the May forecast through available reporting periods. Michael Nakamoto, chief principal deputy fiscal analyst, cautioned that much of that apparent outperformance is timing or temporary: a Project Mint reporting change produced an extra ~45 days of sales-tax revenue for a single period (an estimated ~$26 million boost), and substantial commerce-tax payments from prior periods are being recognized in FY2026.

"For that August period…instead of collecting on about 30 days of revenue, we collected on 45 days of revenue," Nakamoto said, describing the timing effect from the Department of Taxation's system changes. He also warned that gaming collections—particularly baccarat-driven win—can be volatile and may reverse.

The forum discussed options for staff to produce "normalized" series that adjust for the commerce-tax outage and the unclaimed-property acceleration so members can see an underlying operating result. Nakamoto said staff would follow up with the treasurer's office and the Department of Taxation to produce such figures.

The meeting included routine business (the May 1 minutes were approved by voice vote). Staff will present the information required under NRS 353.228 to the Interim Finance Committee on Dec. 18, and members discussed how recent statutory changes will alter future forum scheduling.

What happens next: staff said they will provide follow-up analyses that separate timing and one-off receipts from underlying revenue performance, and the forum's statutory report will go to the Interim Finance Committee on Dec. 18.