Governor and legislature have more work to do.

In my blog poll here last week about half the respondents were opposed to any further increases in state revenue. While true that teh poll is not a particularly representative sample, it does indicate that the people of the Commonwealth are not ready to accept more taxes. The Governor and legislature are going to have to cut services to make the budget balance if they don't get more revenue. Of course, the crux of the matter is where those cuts fall. Cutting local aid or Chapter 70 school aid pushes the problem onto the municipalities. Cutting spending on items like Quinn bill funding takes the money right out of the pockets of police officers.
I'm sure that the Governor and legislative leaders are working ...

... on where the next cuts will fall. My hope is that the information is presented as soon as possible so that municipalities can plan for the shortfalls if their aid is to be cut. The late passage of the current FY10 budget and the uncertainty of the amount of reduction made it very difficult to plan our town budget. I suspect that the Governor will be forced to make mid year reductions in local aid, as he did last year, in the current fiscal year as well. Knowing that sooner than later prevents the town from overspending the budget. Mid year reductions are a kind of double whammy since you can't unspend funds and the town is forced to make more drastic cuts for the remainder of the year to catch up.