NewsOK
BY MICHAEL MCNUTT
Published: February 2, 2010
Gov. Brad Henry on Monday proposed using most of the state’s savings account to deal with the state’s fiscal crisis and to keep agency cuts this fiscal year at 7.5 percent.
His proposal calls for using about 80 percent of the nearly $600 million in the Rainy Day Fund for the current fiscal year. He wants to use $69 million in the 2011 fiscal year, leaving $43 million in the fund.
Because of low energy prices and the state feeling the effects of the national recession, estimates indicate the state will be about $530 million short by the end of this fiscal year, and that legislators will have about $1.3 billion less to appropriate this year compared with last year. The state constitution requires lawmakers develop a balanced budget.
"This budget crisis is precisely the kind of emergency that citizens envisioned 25 years ago when they voted to create the Rainy Day Fund,” Henry told legislators during his eighth and final State of the State address... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Tue, February 2, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski