AUGUSTA – Already trying to settle on a final $10.1 million in savings to balance the state’s $6.3 billion budget, lawmakers may need to cover a new shortfall in tax and other revenue collections of at least $40 million – and perhaps more than twice that – when they reconvene in January, Baldacci administration officials suggested Friday.

A state tax agency expert, Michael Allen, told the Appropriations Committee his recommendations were not final but that he would likely propose to the state Revenue Forecasting Committee today downward adjustments in anticipated General Fund revenue for of about $20 million in each year.

Allen, director of the division of econometric research for Maine Revenue Services, also said Highway Fund revenue reductions of $11 million and perhaps $6 million or $7 million would probably be proposed for the current two-year period.

“We’re still running numbers,” Allen told the legislative panel during its second daylong session this week.

Other officials in the Baldacci administration said Allen’s analysis focuses on a variety of tax lines but would not cover all revenue sources and that there were additional factors to prompt an even larger scaling back of current General Fund revenue projections.

The administration is bracing for a rollback of revenue estimates as large as $90 million, according to a gubernatorial aide.

One area of concern is federal money that has been anticipated by the state Department of Health and Human Services, officials said.

Another potentially larger problem stems from questions about the state’s ability to collect revenue deriving originally from expired or unused gift cards that have been considered to be abandoned property, a high Baldacci administration official said.

Commissioner Rebecca Wyke of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services was not that specific but said “some concerns” could lower current revenue projections “significantly.”

The state Revenue Forecasting Committee meeting today is being held to discuss an update of revenue projections due by Dec. 1.

If the forecasting panel lowers its projections, the Baldacci administration and state lawmakers will have to ensure a biennial spending blueprint conforms.

Democratic Sen. Margaret Rotundo of Lewiston, a co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers recognized what they are facing and that difficult choices would be necessary.

“It’s nothing that we’re looking forward to having to do. … It’s not going to be fun,” she said.

Republican Rep. Sawin Millett of Waterford said even Allen’s General Fund revenue ranges could require more pessimistic adjustment.

Baldacci administration figures distributed Friday had General Fund revenue through October below target by $3.2 million, or 0.4 percent.

Looking ahead, “the State Planning Office reported this week that the average price of home heating oil in the state is $3.11 a gallon, $0.92 per gallon higher than the same week a year ago,” Wyke wrote in a new monthly report.

“This price is likely to continue to rise over the coming weeks to reflect the continued run-up in oil prices to approximately $95 per barrel. Gasoline prices in the state have moved into the $3-per-gallon range as well.

The report also says, “With the holiday shopping season approaching and the winter heating season about to begin, low- and middle-income households will need to reduce other spending to fit these higher energy costs into their monthly budgets.”