Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Groundhog Day?
In the classic movie Groundhog Day reporter Bill Murray is assigned to cover the rodent-related festivities in Punxsutawney and has to continue re-living the day until he gets it right. Ohio may be in a similar situation with its budget deficit. How ironic then that the Executive Budget came out on February 2.
True to his promise, the governor’s budget is balanced and does not include tax increases. Instead, it uses an elaborate cocktail of cuts, pay decreases, fee increases, and federal stimulus money to plug the state’s budget hole (estimated to be over $8 billion for the next biennium by CCS). But as today’s Beacon Journal rightly points out, “All of the federal money, and the new fees proposed by the governor, cannot hide the hard reality: Ohio doesn't have the continuing revenue to cover its priorities and needs.”
At the end of the day, we still have a structural deficit estimated by CCS to be in the neighborhood of $3 billion. So like Bill Murray, Ohio will keep going through the same thing until we finally get it right. Maybe now’s the time to stop the cycle?
True to his promise, the governor’s budget is balanced and does not include tax increases. Instead, it uses an elaborate cocktail of cuts, pay decreases, fee increases, and federal stimulus money to plug the state’s budget hole (estimated to be over $8 billion for the next biennium by CCS). But as today’s Beacon Journal rightly points out, “All of the federal money, and the new fees proposed by the governor, cannot hide the hard reality: Ohio doesn't have the continuing revenue to cover its priorities and needs.”
At the end of the day, we still have a structural deficit estimated by CCS to be in the neighborhood of $3 billion. So like Bill Murray, Ohio will keep going through the same thing until we finally get it right. Maybe now’s the time to stop the cycle?
