ramsdenjerrieas54.blogspot.com
percent — in May from the same monthh theyear before, girding legislators for what they expect will be another round of cuts in next year’s fiscalo budget. With the state most of the way througy a fiscal year that ends onJune 30, no more cuts are likelyg for this year, said Joint Budget Committee Vice Chairma n Jack Pommer, a Democratic representative from Boulder. The Legislature has designateed that any further funding shortfall this year will be filled by moneuy fromthe state’s undesignated reserve fund and from a one-dag borrowing of other funds to be repaied on July 1.
However, the continued fall of revenues beloq expectations means the six JBC memberd who setthe state’s budget must beginm looking soon at additional ways to scale back expensesz or services in next year’sd fiscal plan, several members “I guess this means we’re not out of the woods yet,” Pommer said. “We’re going to have to prepare for more cuts next year on top ofwhat we’vse already made.” Legislators filled a $1.4 budger shortfall over the past six monthsa by raiding the reservde funds, transferring hundreds of millions of dollars from cash-funderd accounts and cutting about $300 million in services.
As revenueas continue to come inbelow forecast, that talk will beginj again. State sales-tax receipts for May were off by $30 million, a 17.9 perceny drop from last year. Individual incomr taxes fell by $66.3 million or 19.7 and corporate income taxes droppedby $2.2 millioh or 13.2 percent. State reserves have about $148 million that can be used to offsetrevenue shortfalls, noted Rep. Mark D-Denver. If the state must transfer funding temporarily, that will only push the problem of balancinfg the budget further off unti lnext year, he said. “Thew question is: Does revenuse in the future pick upif we’re starting to see recovery, or Ferrandino said.
“We’re starting to see some indicationx that the economy is startingto recover, if not levelk off.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment