Wisconsin’s $5.9 billion state budget shortfall is projected to increase, and the state’s general fund is expected to see a major cash flow shortage in the coming months, officials reported Tuesday.
Bob Lang, director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, said the LFB will produce revenue estimates on either May 11 or 12 based on tax collection data from the previous months.
“Tax collection data for the month of April has been very weak, particularly in the individual income tax,” Lang said. “We are pouring over the collection data, and we will do estimates again for the governor and the Legislature.”
Lang added though LFB does not have an exact figure for the amount the budget shortfall increase, he ventured to say it will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Lang also said because of the decline in revenues the state will experience cash flow problems, and it may be necessary for the state to borrow money from various funds to cover the shortfall in the short term.
In a letter to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, Secretary of Administration Michael Morgan projected the condition of the state’s general fund from April to September, saying the state could face a cash flow shortage of about $1.3 billion dollars by mid-summer.
Morgan said if necessary, the DOA will reallocate eligible surplus funds to cover the debts or even delay payments and establish prioritization.
He added reallocation was necessary for last quarter’s general fund, conservation fund, utility public benefits fund and lottery fund.
“The general fund will experience low balances from May 1, 2009, to May 15, 2009, and from June 15, 2009, to October 26, 2009,” Morgan wrote in the letter. “During these periods, it may become necessary to exercise the reallocation of certain eligible surplus moneys.”
Carla Vigue, spokesperson for Gov. Jim Doyle, said the governor fielded questions in Milwaukee on Monday about whether the state will fall short of projected revenue collections.
Doyle said the budget shortfall is going to get worse, but many other states are facing similar problems.
Vigue was unable to comment on the cash flow problems.
Kimber Liedl, spokesperson for Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the expanding budget shortfall illustrates the importance of budgeting properly rather than raising taxes.
“We need to make it easier for [businesses] to stay here,” Liedl said. “We’re expanding programs at a time when we’re already having a hard enough time funding our core values.”
The JFC responded to the reports regarding the increased budget shortfall by canceling their meeting scheduled for Thursday so the committee could have the most accurate budget information available to them as they continue their budgeting decisions.
Ultimately, Committee Co-chair Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, cancelled Thursday’s meeting in an effort to make members of the committee from both political parties happy.
At its meeting Tuesday, the committee made a variety of administration decisions, including voting to close 24 Department of Natural Resources centers throughout the state and raising the state’s boat registration fee.
