Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Ok, so we’re not exactly seeing green—our budget is short by approximately $1 billion—but we did pass an important piece of legislation through the Senate today that will help us solve our fiscal crisis.
Senate Bill 228 passed its final vote in the Senate and now heads to the House. When enacted, it will eliminate the decades-old provision that handcuffs us with an arbitrary allocation formula called Arvescough-Bird. (Click here for some background.)
The passage of this bill will let us:
- maximize the federal stimulus dollars
- determine budget priorities according to our needs
- be accountable to the citizens by funding services instead of formulas, without raising taxes
- position us for a full recovery from the economic downturn
The Senate has done its part to eliminate what Senator Morse calls “the tyranny of the formula.” The bill now moves to the House. Stay tuned!