Bee and Weiers touched on the state's
budget woes at ATRA's luncheon this afternoon, confirming the report
in yesterday's YS the FY08 shortfall is likely to be closer to $1
billion than the $600 million estimate from September.
Weiers
repeated his stance that borrowing is not an option because it "will
not, cannot and never has worked" to reduce a deficit.
Bee said
leaders were briefed by JLBC earlier in the week and were told
economic growth in the state has flattened out completely.
"That's
an indication that we're not going in a flat direction," he said,
rather there is a very real possibility of negative growth.
