Budget woes

As we prepare for a new session in a few weeks, the budget situation will be at the top of the list of issues. The House Republicans had the chance to get a briefing last week on the financial situation of the State.

First of all, as has been widely reported, there is a deficit for this Fiscal Year (which ends June 30, 2008) of around $100 million. That will have to be dealt with by Governor Beshear.

The larger problem we need to tackle is the next budget. The current Fiscal Year budget has expenditures of about $9.4 billion. The revenue forecast for the next 2 Fiscal Years are $8.8 billion and $9.2 billion. So we cannot even fund a continuation budget for the next 2 years if revenue forecasts hold up.

Hopefully there will be a real effort to scale back on the unnecessary projects and focus on fiscal discipline.