NGA and State Budget Officals Project States Will Continue to Face Fiscal Difficuties in Comming Years.

In a preliminary review of the biannual report The Fiscal Survey of States, officials from the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) today forecasted continued fiscal difficulties for states. In fiscal 2009, states were forced to reduce General Fund expenditures by 4.8 percent and are expected to reduce fiscal 2010 General Fund expenditures by at least 4.0 percent, marking the first time that state spending has declined in back to back years. The weakening of state fiscal conditions is reflected in the $250 billion in budget gaps faced by states between fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2011. Of the $250 billion, states closed $72.7 billion in budget gaps during fiscal 2009 and $113.1 billion before the enactment of their fiscal 2010 budgets to bring them into balance with drastically declining revenues.

"These are the worst numbers we’ve ever seen in the decades of putting together this report," said NASBO Executive Director Scott D. Pattison. "States have been forced to lay off and furlough employees, raise taxes, drain rainy day funds and sharply cut state spending in ways that impact every part of state government."

Even after closing these gaps, an additional $14.5 billion in budget gaps remains in fiscal 2010, and states face at least $21.9 billion in budget gaps for fiscal 2011. To help close these gaps, 42 states cut their enacted fiscal 2009 budgets by $31.2 billion, and 33 states cut their fiscal 2010 expenditures by $53.5 billion. Additionally, states enacted tax and fee increases of $23.8 billion along with additional increases in other revenue measures of $7.7 billion for fiscal 2010.

"States will continue to struggle over the next decade because of the combination of the length and depth of this economic downturn, the projected slow recovery and the overhang of unmet needs," said NGA Executive Director Raymond C. Scheppach. "The unmet needs are those postponed or deferred during the crisis including, replenishing retiree pension and health care trust funds and financing maintenance, technology and infrastructure investments. States will also need to rebuild contingency or rainy day funds. The bottom line is that states will not fully recover from this recession until late in the next decade."