Gov. announces plans to close mid-year budget gap

The governor’s chief budget officer has reported that the state faces a $320 million budget gap for the current fiscal year due to a projected revenue shortfall and certain over-budget spending obligations.
 
While strong state tax collections are forecast to beat the estimate for fiscal 2016, non-tax revenues included in the budget are expected to fall short of targets by about $205 million.
 
On the spending side, non-discretionary spending is expected to exceed budgeted amounts by $115 million, including spending on caseload-driven human service programs and settlement and judgment costs.
 
The governor released a plan to partially close the gap by counting $56 million in non-tax revenue not included in the fiscal 2016 budget law and by making $54 million in unilateral budget cuts using his authority under Section 9C of Chapter 29 of the General Laws, commonly called 9C cuts.
 
There were no municipal or school aid cuts included among the 9C reductions, although the $3 million regionalization grant program was eliminated.
 
The rest of the budget-balancing plan includes raising the tax estimate for the year to reflect the better-than-expected performance through mid-year and recognizing some amount of unspent funds, which normally occurs at the end of the year.
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