Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002
From: "Arline Isaacson"
Subject: State Budget / Conference Committee

The House - Senate conference committee released the FY'03 state budget late today. As expected, all our higher ed contracts are funded.

As you have no doubt been reading in the press, state revenues are continuing to plummet below anticipated levels. The conference committee faced a revenue shortfall of approximately $600 m . As a result of that deficit, the conference committee chose to take the lower number (of either the House or Senate) for almost every single account in the state budget.

Attached you'll find Dave Danning's spreadsheet on the campus line-items.

The conference committee did NOT, as some had feared, change state employees' health insurance premium costs from 85/15 to 80/20.

The legislature plans to meet tomorrow in a formal session to adopt the conference committee report (including the tax package). Acting Governor Jane Swift will then have 10 days to make her vetoes. The legislature will thereafter have only one day (before the formal sessions of the legislature end) to override any of her vetoes.

Higher Ed Spreadsheet (note: you must use MS Internet Explorer and have MS Excel loaded on your computer to be able to open up this file).