Kentucky state budget shortfall
WBKO
May 5, 2009
Governor Steve Beshear's administration is predicting Kentucky's state budget shortfall to approach one-billion-dollars next year, but local legislators say it's still early to tell.Beshear made the announcement last week based on internal projections.The governor says the state may look to a pool of federal economic stimulus money for help.
Local legislators say they need more information before they can be sure of the large projected shortfall.
"All of this information is based on the Concensus Forecasting Group who meets at the call of the Governor, and they have not gotten together to present their numbers yet," said Representative Jim DeCesare of District 21. "I just think members of the General Assembly, such as myself, we need more information before we can go around saying that we're a billion dollars short."
"We all know that the situation is not particularly good, but whether it's a crisis, we don't know yet," said Representative Jody Richards of District 20. "We won't until the Concensus Forecasting Group meets."
Beshear says he's asked a team of economic forecasters to make official projections.Legislators say they are now waiting to find out if they will be called back to Frankfort.
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