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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen
3.12.2008
Find your scissors
That's the message that Gov. Jim Douglas says he's sent to his staff. He explained in a letter to Speaker Gaye Symington and Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin sent Monday that he expects state revenues will be revised downward when his economic advisor and the Legislature's issue a special forecast in April. "I have asked my administration to make contingency plans that further reduce state spending to accommodate any downturn in state revenues," he wrote to the two Democratic leaders in the Legislature. He hasn't given his staff targets yet, but those will be coming, said Jason Gibbs, Douglas spokesperson. Right now, department and agency chiefs are supposed to be thinking about where they might cut. Seems like a tough assignment until you know whether you have to take off an arm or a leg. Any new belt-tightening would be in addition to the 150 positions that are being eliminated by July 1 and the 250 more position cuts required by July 1, 2009. And state government must cover the increased costs of wage increases without an extra appropriation. Douglas told lawmakers he expects to accomplish all the belt-tightening without layoffs or tax increases. He's challenging Democrats to offer up their ideas to meet the current financial challenge under the same restraints -- no layoffs and no new taxes. Democrats have rejected at least one of ideas Douglas suggested as a way to slide along the edge of any recession with the least possible impact. That's was the proposal to lease the lottery. In the coming days, it should become clear how House Democrats plan to answer the Douglas challenge -- at least in first draft. The House Appropriations Committee has to wrap up work on a budget soon. Word in the halls at the Statehouse is that Democrats still haven't found a way through the thicket when it comes to paying for transportation projects. Senators haven't either. The Senate Institutions Committee sent out a capital bill Tuesday that deleted $4.65 million in bonding for road and bridge projects. The committee chose to cover some of the state's obligation to schools instead -- with the hope that someone in the building or the Douglas administration might still find the $4.65 million (which draws down $20 million in federal funds) under a yet-to-be identified sofa cushion before the final gavel sounds on this session. -- Nancy Remsen
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