Transition From Multibillion Dollar Annual Deficits to “Baseline” Budgets. Over
the past several years, each January Governor’s budget has included
billions of dollars in proposed solutions—expenditure reductions,
revenue increases, borrowing, and other actions—in order to close budget
shortfalls. Now, however, the state has reached a point where its
underlying expenditures and revenues are roughly in balance. With the
exception of education funding, the remainder of state General Fund
spending reflects a baseline budget. This means that state–supported
program and service levels established in 2012–13 generally continue “as
is” in 2013–14. Under our and the administration’s fiscal forecasts,
this situation would likely continue into 2014–15.
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