Gov. Neil Abercrombie rallied reporters to the Capitol Wednesday so he could send a message to the public that the state Council on Revenues’ significantly downgraded economic forecast is no cause for alarm.

The council on Tuesday lowered its January projection of 3.3 percent growth in general fund revenues down to zero for 2014. The council also dropped its forecasts for 2015 and 2016 to 5.5 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

This means the state government will have almost $1 billion less to spend over the next two years than it expected, completely recasting the budget debate.

Repeating their talking points, Abercrombie and Finance Director Kalbert Young said the administration’s budget and six-year financial plan are “sound and solid,” they have a “strong team” and an eye toward long-term “sustainability.”

The governor said there are always fluctuations in the economy and those are taken into account. The economy remains strong, he added, it’s just flattening now at peak levels.

“We know what we’re doing,” he said. “We know where we’re going.”

Abercrombie and Young offered no specifics on how they would prioritize the $6.31 billion spending plan for next year that they submitted to lawmakers in January. But the governor said the administration would take the lead on it and send something over to lawmakers “forthwith.”

The governor didn’t mention the record $844 million surplus and $1.1 billion fiscal turnaround that he has built his campaign for re-election around and routinely touted at public events. Without that carryover balance from 2013, the state would have to make significant cuts to address revenues coming in so much lower than anticipated.

The House sent the supplemental budget bill over to the Senate Wednesday after shaving $53 million off the administration’s proposal last week. The legislation appropriates $6.25 billion in general fund money for fiscal 2015, which starts July 1.

“While the flat rate of growth was a little surprising, we were already planning for a 1 percent worse-case scenario when constructing the House draft of the budget,” Finance Chair Sylvia Luke said in a statement Wednesday. “That’s the reason we lowered the Governor’s operating and CIP funding requests. Consequently, even under the Council’s latest projections, I think we will be handing over to the Senate a budget that’s much more within the ballpark than if we hadn’t been as prudent.”

Aaron Ling Johanson, the Republican vice chair of the Finance Committee, said on the House floor Wednesday that it took courage and leadership to not acquiesce to every request and pass a reduced budget.

“At this point last year, the House had reduced the governor’s budget by almost $600 million,” he said. “Reform is never easy. However, this will to compel greater transparency in accounting changes the culture of how state government engages in the budgeting process.”

Abercrombie applauded the House’s “excellent” budget plan, which preserves more than 99 percent of his proposal. He said it maintains the administration’s and Legislature’s shared focus on restoring emergency reserves while funding necessary public services and key initiatives.

The House budget is $270 million higher than the budget for the current fiscal year.

The man in charge of shepherding the budget bill to passage on the Senate side over the next several weeks is Ways and Means Chair David Ige, who is challenging Abercrombie for the Democratic nomination.

Abercrombie rejected the notion that politics may interfere with how the administration and Legislature respond to the council’s latest revenue forecast.

“This is not a contest,” he said. “Regardless of the outside politics that some people might want to cite, you have to take into account that all legislators and governors want to try to do the right thing by the requirements of us to act on behalf of everyone’s interests.”

• Contact Nathan Eagle via email at neagle@civilbeat.com or Twitter at @NathanEagle.