Seven States Cut It Close as Budget Deadline Looms

Seven states have about 36 hours before they blow a midnight Saturday deadline for adopting a fiscal 2013 budget. North Carolina has until midnight on Sunday.

In six of the states — Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and South Carolina — legislatures have approved budgets. For the spending plans to come into effect the governors now have to approve them.

However, as of early Friday afternoon the Pennsylvania Senate had still not approved the House-passed budget.

In Delaware the House approved the budget on Wednesday and the Senate followed suit on Thursday. This year’s $3.6 billion operating budget is 2.2% larger than last year’s.

“Even in his first year, when the governor inherited the largest budget shortfalls in state history, Delaware delivered its operating and capital budgets on time and balanced,” said Brian Selander, spokesman for Gov. Jack Markell. “That will not change this year.”

In Illinois theGeneral Assembly approved the budget nearly a month ago. However, the Senate has 30 days to formally deliver the budget to the governor. The Senate delivered the budget on Friday morning.

Once Markell receives the budget, he can approve the budget, decline to approve it, or approve it with vetoes or reduced appropriations to line items. If he declined to approve it, current levels of funding for state agencies would continue into the new fiscal year.

On Friday a source close to the governor told The Bond Buyer that the Markell plans to sign the budget on Saturday morning.

In Massachusetts on Thursday both legislative houses approved a $32.5 billion budget.

When it is approved, Gov. Deval Patrick will have 10 days to review it and make vetoes.

The state’s governor and legislators have already approved a $1.25 billion interim budget to keep the state government working if the midnight Saturday deadline is missed.

Massachusetts has a separate five-year capital budget that is already in place.

“We’re encouraged that the legislature passed the FY 2013 budget today,” Jay Gonzalez, secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Administration and Finance, wrote on Thursday. “We have just started to review it and are encouraged that it appears the legislature is taking steps in the direction the governor wants on reforming community colleges. We will continue to review the details in the coming days.”

In New Jersey both legislative houses approved the $31.7 billion budget on Monday. Gov. Christopher Christie has promised to use a line-item veto on it.

The legislature passed a millionaires’ tax on Thursday. In the past Christie has opposed such a tax. He may veto it in the next few days.

North Carolina has a two-year budget that started in July 2011. It is working on a supplement for the coming fiscal year. Both legislative houses have passed a budget.

However, Democrat Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed the budget on Friday afternoon. “The budget the General Assembly delivered to me leaves too many needs unmet — like the fact that if it passes, schools in North Carolina would receive $190 million less next year than they received this year. And has too many misplaced priorities, like the fact that it gives $336 million in tax breaks to lawyers, lobbyists, and other wealthy individuals.”

“I have repeatedly reached out to legislative leaders to try to find a compromise,” Perdue said. “Unfortunately, the message I got back is 'take it or leave it.’ ”

The Pennsylvania House passed a $27.7 billion budget on Thursday. As of midday on Friday the Senate had not approved it.

Republican Gov. Tom Corbett also needs to approve it in order for it to come into effect.

“We still believe that we’ll have a budget by [Sunday],” Eric Shirk, a spokesman for the governor, said Thursday. If that is not the case, lawmakers will likely pass a bridge budget.

As for why the state has not yet adopted a budget, Shirk said, “The nature of the thing is that it just takes time.”

On Thursday the South Carolina House and Senate passed a $6.7 billion budget.

The legislature has sent the governor a continuing resolution, maintaining current spending levels into the new fiscal year. Gov. Nikki Haley has signed the resolution.

Haley has five days, excluding Sundays and holidays, to issue vetoes. She has said she plans to use the time, saying that it is not her fault that state lawmakers were late getting the budget to her.

“It’s fairly standard to have some states that haven’t finalized yet,” Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies at the National Association of State Budget Officers, said Thursday morning. This year’s rop of stragglers is fewer than what had been the case in June 2009, Sigritz said.

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