March 19, 2002
The House Appropriations committee today began looking at
how to save 698
million without having to raise taxes. As we discussed yesterday, since the
House refused to pass any tax increases last week, Chairman Wilk is looking
at what cuts will have to be made to have a balanced budget. This is
still
in the discussion phase in the Appropriations committee. These cuts start
from the "deep cut" Gov. budget and add the following:
$6.7 MILLION - RAISE LOC SCORES TO 50
$131 per pupil cut for base state aid
$36 million in "furloughs" for state employees. Unpaid days
off.
$25 million fee fund balances
$24 million regents base budget
$15 million in sale of assets in parks
$12 million Shift care plans for NF residents, resulting in pharmacy savings
$10.3 million Demand transfers
$10 million eliminate all on call temp services
10 million reduce SGF expenditures
$8.3 million Freeze NF rates
$6 million freeze on equipment purchases
$5 million -out of state travel
$5 million 1 year no new vehicle purchases
Many more cuts below 5 million.
More information to come tomorrow.
Gina