They're warning lawmakers it will be bad, but just how big will Minnesota's budget deficit be next year?

The concrete answer is up in the air until Thursday, that's when state finance officials will present legislators with the state's economic forecast.

LeAnn Wallace is in the Newsroom with the story... LeAnn, how bad could it be?

Michelle state leaders were recently told to brace themselves for what could be a 4–billion dollar deficit come next year. In February of this year Governor Tim Pawlenty announced the deficit rose to nearly 1–billion dollars, but now that figure has almost quadrupled.

Lawmakers have been busy trying to figure out how to close the financial gap.

Northland Lawmakers are headed to Saint Paul this week to be briefed on the state's deficit.

Many say it's too early to offer a solution, but that with a short–fall this bad, all options must be considered.

"The decisions we make aren't going to just going to impact us over the next month or year but over the next generation so we want to probably listen to the people of Minnesota and come to the Duluth and the Iron Range and all over Minnesota to see what impacts there will be on this budget."

"It's going to be a pretty painful session for many advocate groups coming to the capital wanting different levels of state funding for different things, whether it's K–12 or higher education institutions or other people that come with specific funding requests."

Senator Bakk has been touring the state talking with various chambers of commerce. He says if the projected deficit stands true, the hole would be too big to raise enough new money and that other options, like a tax reform, will have to be considered. Governor Pawlenty will submit his budget to the Legislature at the end of January. Michelle

LeAnn, how does Minnesota compare to the rest of the nation?

Michelle as you know the whole nation is suffering and Minnesota is pretty comparable to other states. Wisconsin is also facing what they're calling the biggest deficit their state has ever seen, 5–point–4 billion dollars.