Minnesota is treading water a bit when it comes to the state’s finances: A fresh budget outlook shows a fiscal cushion for now but a deep hole forming later.

State finance officials released the estimates Thursday in a new economic forecast. The topline figures show a surplus in the current budget of almost $2.5 billion but a shortfall that could approach $3 billion by 2029.

The precarious nature could force a standpat session even as the Legislature faces pressure to provide help to people needing nutrition or health care services, homeowners dealing with big property tax spikes or communities coping with cost strains of their own.

“We're going to happen to have some acknowledgements that the federal government's not going to help us. The chaos is going to continue,” DFL Gov. Tim Walz

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