Governor & budget director outline dire outlook for state's economy.

• Position: Legislative DEVELOPMENTS

Coinciding with an announcement by the National Bureau of Economic Research that the nation has been in a recession since December 2007, Gov. Ted Strickland and State Budget Director Pari Sabety held a news conference to describe the difficult financial circumstances facing the state.

Continued shrinking income and sales tax receipts combined with an ongoing slide in consumer confidence and a weakening automotive sector mean that Ohio must cut up to an additional $640 million from the budget that ends June 30. This will be in addition to the $500+ million in budget adjustments in September. Depending upon the availability of federal assistance in the next six months, that number could shrink.

Even worse is the outlook for the fiscal year 2010-11 budget. In what she described as a "historic" scenario, Sabety said the administration is looking at the upcoming biennium spending plan with $7 billion less in funding than current levels. Even with across-the-board agency cuts of 10% from FY 2008-09...