Gov. Charlie Crist has a plan for covering the $2.3 billion state budget deficit. It is not that different from we all have been having to do this year.
Crist wants to dip into savings ($850 million from reserves), use his credit “cards” (borrow rather than pay cash for $300 million in prison construction), drop plans for any new additions or renovations (scrap nearly $120 million in construction work), use the kid’s trust funds ($318 million from state trust funds) and tell the family to cut its spending (cutting $565 million in spending). State agencies have already shaved about $320 million in spending by “cutting staffing, shrinking checks to schools and universities, and delaying purchases.”
Read more.
