Statehouse Republicans, why so quiet?

Dear neighbor,

Tomorrow, it will be one week since the announcement that our state revenue forecast is expected to drop by $2.4 billion. There has yet to be any explanation for what happened and how we will make up for it.

Yesterday, April 21, members of the budget committees from both the House and Senate met to discuss the current version of the budget. During that conference committee, the Republican members were silent on how to deal with the failed revenue forecast. Another full day of session has come and gone without so much as a word about how we are going to have a functional budget when we are going to be down $2.4 billion.

We have to trim our state budget by more than 4%. At this point, everyone is waiting around to see what the Republicans will decide to cut funding for.

With looming cuts from the federal level, I am deeply concerned about our state’s economy and the ability for the state budget to withstand the turmoil caused by the instability in Washington.

The legislative session is set to wrap up in just a few days. Will my colleagues across the aisle be able to sort out this budget mess in time?

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Correction: My last article titled “Budget in crisis: projected $2.4 billion loss in state revenue” had an error. I said that our revenue was projected to be down $963.9 billion in 2026, and it should have said $963.9 million in 2026. I apologize for any confusion.