Governor Gibbons today told reporters that he would reconvene the Economic Forum to give him advice on how much revenue the state can expect to take in through the current two year budget cycle. The Forum’s last predictions, dire as they were last year, proved not conservative enough. The state has already spent $50 million more than it’s taken in, which means it’s spending money now that should have been spent next year. Gibbons said he is awaiting reports from state division chiefs on how they would cut up to 3% more from their budgets. Gibbons said he does not intend not convene a special session to handle the crisis. However, he did indicate that he is asking his staff to tell him how much budget cutting he can do as Governor without getting legislative approval. There is also the issue of whether extremely deep cuts would jeopardize anyone’s U.S. Constitutional rights to required services.
Gibbons did, however, announce he will convene a special session of the legislature in order to change a state law to decouple teacher performance reports from their students’ test scores. By so doing the state would become eligible for federal funds to assist the state to compete scholastically under a program “Race to the Top.”
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