Deal Reached on Budget Includes Cap and Trade Loan
CSAC to Focus Next Year on Expenditure Plan to Include Local Government
While the Legislature has yet to officially vote on the budget package, lawmakers and the Governor announced a deal yesterday that includes the Governor’s more conservative revenues estimates and limited spending increases. The deal also includes the Governor’s proposal to loan $500 million in Cap and Trade auction revenues to the State’s general fund.
The proposal came as a surprise to many when the Governor included it in his May Revision of the budget where it was widely anticipated that he would release a detailed expenditure plan for auction revenues. The loan is also somewhat contradictory to the Governor’s “prudence over exuberance” motto as it technically adds to the State’s “wall of debt” by constituting a special fund loan that will be required to be paid back with interest.