Introduction
The Senate Ways and Means (SWM) budget seeks to close a budget gap of approximately $5 billion. This gap is $1.5 billion larger than the gap the House and Governor confronted. The budget gap has grown because the national economic crisis has led to larger declines in state revenue than had been anticipated when the original revenue estimates for the upcoming fiscal year were developed in January.
The SWM proposal relies on close to $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds and about $500 million in reserves (including both withdrawals from and a forgone deposit into the Stabilization Fund). This budget does not include new broad-based taxes and instead imposes over $2.5 billion in cuts and spending reductions,1 affecting almost everything government does, including public safety, education, health care and human services, environmental protection, libraries and parks, and our infrastructure. The SWM budget recommends cutting local aid, for example, by $487 million (36 percent) from the amount originally appropriated in the General Appropriation Act (GAA) for Fiscal Year 2009.
It is likely that during the floor debate, the Senate, like the House, will seek to create more of a balance between budget cuts and new revenue. But even with significant new revenue, a budget that closes a $5 billion gap will force cuts that will affect the quality of life of people across the state. The challenge the Commonwealth faces in these difficult times is to develop a budget plan that will allow the state to make the basic investments in people and infrastructure that are needed so that our Commonwealth can emerge from the recession prepared to take full advantage of the economic opportunities of the future.
This preliminary analysis of the Senate Ways and Means budget provides an overview of budget proposals in each major area of the budget.
Staff
