In the above chart included in a Legislative Finance Division report from July, cuts to state operating budgets have dropped it back to 2007 levels. Despite these reductions, a sharp decline in revenues means only around a quarter to a third of the budget has been fully funded since 2015.
Stopping in town one last time before next week's election, Sen. Bert Stedman talked about the state's ongoing deficit woes, by far the largest issue the new set of legislators will be facing when they head into next year's session.
Speaking on October 27, he tried to put the scale of the deficit into perspective. While for readability's sake the amount is sometimes expressed in terms of "billions," he noted the full figure may come to between $3,100,000,000 and $3,500,000,000 this year – an awful lot of zeroes to consider. By the lower estimate, that amounts to around $100 spent per second no...
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