It’s all about the coattails
Don’t believe the hype. Barack Obama’s stimulus is going to put a long term screw job on the state budget.
The General Fund budget the House passed and sent to the Senate totals about $2.5 billion, a whopping 29 percent more than the budget for the current fiscal year. But only about $1.5 billion of that is in state funds. The other $1 billion comes from the federal stimulus funding.
29% more than this year’s budget! When someone is broke you don’t give them more money than they are accustomed to; you give them just enough to make it to get by.
The federal gravy train will not – cannot – last forever. I think I heard the money will dry up in about two years. Who wants to take bets on what will happen. Two options:
a) The budget will quietly slide back to pre “stimulus” levels with maybe some adjustment for inflation.
b) State officials will wail loudly about the loss of critical services (which we miraculously got by without until now) and demand more of our money.
Ummmm… I’m going to go with “b.” Brace yourselves.
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Two points – services in Alabama,including essential ones are badly underfunded and that funding is all over the place (up and down). Second, once a state service or bureaucracy is in place, it is very difficult to do away with.
I know those two points are contradictory in some ways but oddly both are very true.