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By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.

 
A Little Help

Nothing like trolling through JLBC and OSPB correspondence to pass the day, but I need a little help...

There's a letter from the directors of those 2 agencies dated July 29th which notifies the Governor, House Speaker Weiers, and Senate Tim Bee that the ending balance for FY2008 (which ended June 30th) is projected to be $99 million in the hole with a final number to be reported September 15th. Now the amount can be more than covered by the Budget Stabilization Fund (BSF) which the letter note has a balance of $250 million.

What I'm not sure is....

1) If there is a need to transfer about $100 million from the BSF, isn't that money already earmarked for the FY2009 budget? Sure FY2008 will be taken care of, but wouldn't the Legislature have to deal with the resulting hole in FY 2009 (or do some sort of voodoo dance to make sure tax revenue rises by that amount)?

2) Why the hole in the FY2008 budget? Remember they just redid the budget in late April, so how did the budget get back out of whack in just over 60 days? Unanticipated spending? Tax revenue even lower than expected?

I guess all will be explained in about 4 weeks but this is curious.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 3:26 PM