Gov. John Baldacci has ordered more than $63 million in immediate state spending cuts. Baldacci says the curtailment order will help ensure that the state finishes the fiscal year with a balanced budget.
He says the cuts are necessary to help the state cope with lagging revenues, which he says have so far fallen roughly $93 million below estimates for fiscal year 2010.
Baldacci says the curtailment is another step in the process of closing a budget gap for fiscal years 2010-2011 now estimated at $400 million. But that could change: The state's Revenue Forecasting Committee meets today to revise its projections. A final report is due by Dec. 1.
The curtailment order, scheduled to be formally announced at an Augusta news conference today at 1:00 p.m., is temporary, Baldacci says, and will cut the rate of spending until a supplemental budget can be hammered out to deal with the growing shortfall. He says the curtailment order applies only to the current fiscal year.
For more details on the curtailment order, click here.