Day 47 is here, and the budget forecast was presented last Thursday. Although these numbers were somewhat dismal, many of us thought that they would be worse. At this point, we are projected to need about $66 million to finish this biennium and about $682 million short to get us to June 2019. Now there may be some additional bumps in the road, but we can get that covered primarily with the use of the Strategic Investment and Infrastructure Fund. It looks as if we can cover our priorities and at this point continue with the property tax relief program. We will see.

There does seem to be quite a desire to get done before we reach our maximum of 80 days. If we could save some of those days, we could call ourselves back into session if there were some critical issues to address when the budget turns around. There has been discussion of trying to get done in 70 days, but many things need to fall in place. With only 160 bills left to be heard on the floor, and now that we have a revenue forecast in place, things should come together fairly quickly. I have my fingers crossed.

Keep in touch,

Jerry Klein