A Spending Issue to maintain
The inflation brought on by federal policies has repaired the budget woes of a few years ago. Yet the underlyingissues remains: Aside from monies required to be put in savings, the legislature tends to allow spending to riseto the level of fundning available. Not so long ago nearly $2B was taken out of savings to continue funding at previous levels. I believe this was in the hopes that revenues would rise in the future. There some in the legislature seeking to apply the brakes to spending; I observed them taken out in a "Saturday Night Massacre."
The recent inflation of energy prices has made life easy for the Legislature. The budget crunch has "disappeared" since revenues went up with fuel prices. In other words the Legislature, for all its past rhetoric about "conservative spending" was bailed out by the extraordinary inflation policies of the present administration in the White House. The core issue remains that there is a perception that, aside from certain savings fund allocations, if there's money in the coffers, it can be spent. This must have its back broken.
In other words, while you are sweating prices at the gas pump, the legislature is quietly saying: "Whew, we got by that one..."
This from awhile ago before inflation set in:
A Cut in State spending by 20% was made. In a Weekly News Breifing Governor Gordon spoke about the loss of State Revenues from mineral production. This article by Jim Angell of the Cowboy State Daily gives a top level look.
Here's an article from County 10. Similar lines but this one says 25% cuts... I'm recalling that some years ago Gov Mead gave some nice pay raises to key executives... Maybe we start there... How many executive pay cuts of 25% would it take to save one state employee's job?
