The Observation Deck

I certainly don't envy Strickland or anyone at the state level in making these decisions.

http://www.wlwt.com/money/19724394/detail.html

Gov. Ted Strickland's budget director confirmed state lawmakers' gloomy expectations Thursday, saying they would have $2.3 billion less in revenue to use to craft the upcoming two-year budget.

The fall in tax receipts could produce a budget gap of up to $3.2 billion, depending on whether the revenue expectation is compared to the House or Senate version of the spending plan, Budget Director Pari Sabety told lawmakers Thursday.

I have been reading about the library cuts from many sources all day and I love the library, so the question is where to make the cuts. I might not want the cuts to come in other areas either (e.g., schools). Or would you prefer tax increases?

I side with the State government. We have high taxes. People and Businesses are flocking to states with low state taxes. We need people and business to turn around our state.

One interesting idea is to let the criminals convicted of non-violent crimes to wear an ankle braclet and stay at home where they would have to provide their own upkeep. Of course, that would be controversial as well. Perhaps we could even hire an Ohio company to make the ankle braclets so we could employ people.

But what other ideas do you have?

Not sure where the "roughly 54 billion" comes from the author cites. Per the Ohio budget, FY10 total expenditures are estimated to be 61.8 billion. FY08 Actual expenditures were 52.8 billion. A difference of 9 billion in TWO years.

Click the link below and then click on "Executive Budget - Complete" (mid left). See page 124/125 of 998.
http://obm.ohio.gov/sectionpages/Budget ... udget.aspx

I would wind the clock back two years and cut 9 billion.