By Rob Port, includes “… North Dakota's lawmakers budget based on revenue forecasts. Which is to say they don't budget money the state has. They budget money the state expects to have. While this allowed state officials to brag, at the time, about significant surpluses, later when the oil revenues dipped, the forecasts ended up being wildly inaccurate in the other direction, incapable of accurately predicting massive revenue shortfalls. …”