Budgeting.

• Position: From the Library

"Roller Coaster Budgets"

Corina Eckl

State Legislatures, October/November 2002, pp. 14-18.

By June 30, 2002, budget gaps reported by 43 states amounted to $37 billion, with 12 states reporting shortfalls greater than 10 percent of their state budgets. Nationally, state revenues were 1.4 percent lower than what was collected in fiscal 2001. The future looks even worse. States face the prospect of a combined $58 billion budget gap for fiscal 2003. So far, most states have avoided tax increases by reducing spending. The first target for most states has been higher education. K-12 education spending has for the most part not been reduced. Many states have bailed themselves out by using money that accumulated in their rainy day funds when the economy was thriving. Two other popular sources of revenue utilized by states have included capital funds and tobacco settlement funds. Because rainy day funds and tobacco settlement proceeds are running...