States brace for shutdowns!
Time is running out for the legislatures in Arizona, Kalifornia, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania to solve their budget gaps.
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana - June 30, 2009 - The last time Indiana missed its deadline for passing a budget and had to shut down the government was during the War between the States (Civil War).
But on Monday, as lawmakers raced to hammer out an agreement over school funding, state agencies began preparing 31,000 workers to be temporarily out of a job. Republican Governor Mitch Daniels has warned residents that most of the state's services - including its parks, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and state-regulated casinos - would be shuttered unless a budget is passed today.
Indiana is one of five states - along with Arizona, Kalifornia, Mississippi and Pennsylvania - bracing for possible shutdowns this week as time runs out for lawmakers to close billion-dollar gaps in their fiscal 2010 budgets.
Of the 46 states whose fiscal year ends today, 32 did not have budgets passed and approved by their governors as of Monday afternoon, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Although the majority of those are expected to pass eleventh-hour budgets, the fiscal futures of a handful remain uncertain, said Todd Haggerty, an NCSL research analyst.
"It's a lot of states that are coming down to the wire," said Haggerty. "It's far more than we've seen in the past, and it's because of the state of the economy."
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana - June 30, 2009 - The last time Indiana missed its deadline for passing a budget and had to shut down the government was during the War between the States (Civil War).
But on Monday, as lawmakers raced to hammer out an agreement over school funding, state agencies began preparing 31,000 workers to be temporarily out of a job. Republican Governor Mitch Daniels has warned residents that most of the state's services - including its parks, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and state-regulated casinos - would be shuttered unless a budget is passed today.
Indiana is one of five states - along with Arizona, Kalifornia, Mississippi and Pennsylvania - bracing for possible shutdowns this week as time runs out for lawmakers to close billion-dollar gaps in their fiscal 2010 budgets.
Of the 46 states whose fiscal year ends today, 32 did not have budgets passed and approved by their governors as of Monday afternoon, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Although the majority of those are expected to pass eleventh-hour budgets, the fiscal futures of a handful remain uncertain, said Todd Haggerty, an NCSL research analyst.
"It's a lot of states that are coming down to the wire," said Haggerty. "It's far more than we've seen in the past, and it's because of the state of the economy."
