Been a while since I spoke to you via video so I drove to the new offices of Donehue Direct , put a dime in the parking meter, and minutes later (one take), I was on my way.
I’ll be updating Nathan’s News more frequently now that the General Assembly returns in a few weeks for our next sesion. This is going to be a VERY difficult budget to put together and I hope Republicans/Democrats, House/Senate, Legislative/Executive branch can keep the focus on People, Not Politics.
We’re looking at a “hole” of approximately $800 million heading into the 2011-2012 budget. Because 70%+ of the state’s General Funds are appropriated to “Education” and “Healthcare”, we’ll have to make cuts in those areas to even get close to that figure in the General Fund portion of the budget. For perspective, you may be interested to know that even if we eliminated approximately 80 agencies in state government the cost savings would be roughly $300 million…which is less than HALF of what will be needed.
Ideas and suggestions? Click “contact” above and let me know what’s on your mind.