Friday, May 21, 2010
Writing the State’s Budget
This week the Senate Committee on Ways and Means released its proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, Fiscal Year 2011. The budget is now pending before the Senate for floor debate next week. You can view it in its entirety by clicking here. This budget proposal is commendable because it contains no new broad-based taxes, and because it does not rely on a withdrawal from the stabilization fund, which contains a perilously low amount.
Unfortunately, the budget proposal does depend on a number of one-time revenue sources to be balanced, and this is unsustainable in future years. The deadline for filing amendments to the budget was 12:00 noon today, and I and my colleagues have filed hundreds of amendments. Many of those that I have authored and am co-sponsoring seek to capture savings and enact reforms that are a necessity to achieve fiscal discipline and avoid budgetary problems now and in the future.
