ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota lawmakers will have to fill a projected $188 million budget deficit next year.

State officials released an economic forecast Tuesday showing the modest deficit at the end of the current two-year budget cycle. That deficit would grow to roughly $586 million in the next three years.

It comes after a string of budget surpluses in recent years and more than $650 million in tax breaks passed by the Republican-led Legislature earlier this year.

The state's economic officials were expected to explain the deficit Tuesday afternoon. But their initial estimate faulted slowing economic growth nationwide and the 2017 Legislature's actions for the red ink.

But the estimate comes with major caveats, like massive unknowns with tax breaks moving through Congress and how it will impact the national economy.

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