Kentucky’s Budget in Trouble
As we have already discussed, the State’s budget is in some serious financial straits. The Courier-Journal reports “Code Red” since it has so many problems.
The Pew Center report, which the article is based on, forecasts quite a few problems for the states for the next decade.
“States will continue to struggle over the next decade because of the combination of the length and depth of this economic downturn, the projected slow recovery and the overhang of unmet needs.”
“. . . Key points from the Pew report shine a light on next best practices: diversifying a state’s economy. Aligning revenues and expenditures; rethinking caps, laws and amendments that prevent lawmakers from being able to act; lawmakers stepping up and making the tough decisions demanded by this economic crisis.”
Diversification of the economy should be priority number one, but that supposes we have an educated workforce that will lead the way into knowledge based, information jobs.
I have yet to see a legislature that doesn’t try to pass the buck, so the question is, Will the Kentucky Legislature make the tough decisions needed to right the ship in the upcoming session? So far I haven’t seen any bills that have been introduced to tackle the problem. If there are any, please let me know.
All of this begs the question, is the State Budget Code Red? Or simply Code Blue – dead and needing some serious life support?
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