At her press conference this morning, Gov. Chris Gregoire gave a little preview of this Friday’s revenue forecast: Not bad, not bad at all.

That’s based on December tax collections which are up more than forecast. While state economists were predicting 2 percent growth, the actual collections are showing a 3.6 percent increase over the previous year.

These aren’t boomtime numbers. But given how many recent revenue forecasts have predicted reductions – and even those predictions have proven to be not pessimistic enough – any upticks are good news.

That doesn’t mean the Friday forecast will predict a bunch more money to help solve the current $2.6 billion state budget hole. It just means the hole isn’t getting deeper.

Last week, state economist Arun Raha produced a report show that state tax collections since the November revenue forecast are up between $40-$50 million.

“Most of this variance, however, is due to a $49 million positive variance in December property tax collections,” the report stated. “Collections outside of property tax are coming in very close to the forecast.”

But since flat is the new up in Olympia, it passes as good news.