From the Chairman: Familiarity, Contempt

We’ve been here before.

By the time we started the regular legislative session in January, we were looking at a $450 million deficit for FY09. That’s about the same size of the deficit we are looking at for FY10 as we approach the planned special session. It is critical that we tackle this year’s problem with the same focus we used to resolve the FY09 deficit.

To put it bluntly, we are technically violating the state constitution’s requirement for a balanced budget because we have borrowed money from restricted state funds and we can’t pay it back. We have no choice but to cut spending, transfer money from funds, or raise revenue to cover the nearly half-billion dollar shortfall and we need to do it right away.

The executive and the Legislature are already in agreement on some issues: We will do everything we can to avoid furloughing employees or cutting up critical services. We need to move quickly to give state agencies time to plan. Budget adjustments generally must apply across-the-board because we do not have time to rewrite every agency budget. State agencies, schools and universities need the flexibility to manage their budgets and prioritize their spending. We must focus, not only on the immediate crisis, but on the long-term and avoid any solutions that are merely bandages.

It is disappointing to find ourselves back here again. But, the flip side is that we have been here before and we can build on the success we achieved last year and lessons we have learned in other hard years.

Representative Luciano “Lucky” Varela

Chairman