“Twenty-five states are currently facing a revenue shortfall, which is a marked improvement over our report from last year, when 31 states were in deficit. … Hanging over all of these forecasts is the uncertainty created by federal tax reform, with wide variation in how the new legislation will affect state finances. … As we've noted before, compiling a list of budget deficit states is a complicated process. There are three main reasons for this: (1) the data is not centralized within individual states; (2) data and terminology are not consistent between states; and (3) the data is often misleading. ...”