The U.S. Senate is considering legislation that will provide additional federal financial aid to state governments.
Until the Senate acts, this potential relief is merely speculative. As a contingency, Governor Patrick has proposed a three and one-half percent cut to this year's state budget, exempting local aid and debt service payments. My advice to the Governor is to go ahead and make the budget cut whether or not additional federal funding is forthcoming. I make this recommendation because next year's budget is going to be the worst we've seen in recent memory, with an opening deficit of more than $2 billion. It will make our current budget difficulties seem like a walk in the park. Making cuts now will prepare us for the necessary and hard decisions that are sure to follow.
