Gov. Andy Beshear announced in late summer that he was expecting a $300 million shortfall, as the Consensus Forecasting Group predicted lower-than-budgeted tax revenues in the current fiscal year. Now, after a strong couple months of receipts, the independent group said the gap between the budget and their prediction is much smaller, estimating a $156 million gap instead.
Beshear said at a news conference Thursday he has created a plan to account for the smaller deficit, which is about 1% of the state’s General Fund appropriations. He said he is asking many agencies and offices to reduce their budgets by about 3% for the rest of the fiscal year that ends next summer.
“Most agencies are meeting this reduction through what we call vacancy credits. These are jobs that were budgeted for that there are dollars in the budget for, but are not currently filled,” Beshear said. “What the cabinets are opting to do is not filling them through the end of the year.” ...
The Democratic governor said he will be making that 3% cut in his own office and the office of the lieutenant governor. However, Beshear said two constitutional officers have refused to make similar reductions. “The auditor and the treasurer have just said no,” Beshear said.
Read the rest at LPM News.
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