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Let us describe the fearsome budget

• Published November 19, 2008

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To sum up: new forecast shows the state $413 million short of funds in this fiscal year, which ends in June. In the next two-year budget, the gap is $4.6 billion. Grand total: (gasp!) $5 BILLION.

That's so short, I'd call it the Billy Barty budget, except Billy Barty was cool.

We could say the budget hole is Nimitz-class. A little bigger, actually.

We could call it the "We're cutting like we're General Motors" budget.

Or how about the "Gross National Product of Togo budget challenge?" Snappy, that one.

What ever the title, a much-discussed point will be whether we really have more to spend in the next budget than we did in this one. On the budget cycle, this is true. The 07-09 budget will be $28.63 billion, and the 09-11 will be 30.07 billion, 5 percent more.

But there is a biennium's worth of loss there, split between the two budget cycles. Fiscal year 2009 is expected to bring in $14.01 billion in revenue for the general fund, $601 million less than Fiscal year 2008. Fiscal year 2010 will bring in 14.54 billion, still $73 million less than ’08.

It's not until fiscal year 2011 that the projections break last year's record, with $15.53 million in revenue.

Bottom line, supplemental '09 budget lawmakers will pass this session will be smaller than the one they passed last session, and state spending will actually shrink (sans new taxes, anyway) for two years.

But by 2010, we're supposed to be growing again.

Also worth noting there was a real biennium-over-biennium drop from 99-01 to 01-03, of $121 million.