What To Do If State Budget Worsens?

Governor Martin O'Malley attended the National Governor's Association (NGA) meeting to learn that states should expect continuing revenue declines and budget chaos in the future.

That's bad news for Maryland. Having taken Maryland's budget to the "edge of the cliff," O'Malley has no plan for curing the out-year deficits that he created of $8 billion. Moreover, the FY11 budget that he proposed last month is balanced by a projected uptick in state revenues that might not materialize according to the speakers at NGA. 

As Robert Pear reported for the New York Times: "Although the national economy has begun to bounce back, governors said Saturday that the worst was yet to come at the state level, where revenues are still falling short of projections. ‘State revenues continue to deteriorate, as most states are witnessing monthly totals lower than their recent forecasts, which have been revised downward,’ said Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, the chairman of the National Governors Association."

For more from the New York Times article "State Have Not Seen the Worst of Economic Times," click here.