Correction

The recent Newswire story, the Two Hundred Million Dollar Question, raised an important issue about questions regarding the state’s bond rating that could affect the legislature’s budget planning this session. But it carried two inaccurate descriptions of the differences between the state House and Senate’s budgets.

First, while the state House “bought back” roughly $200 million more in government programs than the state Senate in its original proposed budget, revisions made to the Senate budget over last weekend reduced that difference by $71 million to a total difference of $114 million between the two chambers– not $200 million as the article implies.

Second, while the bill that carries the Senate’s budget– engrossed substitute Senate Bill 6444– calls for a $141 million transfer from the state’s Budget Stabilization Account, or “rainy day fund,” into the general fund, the Senate plans to transfer the remainder of the balance of the rainy day fund into the general fund with a separate bill that has yet to be made public. Thus the Senate and the House proposals differ by $100 million over the amount of cash reserves they plan to leave in the general fund, not $200 million– with the difference remaining entirely over the amount of money left in the budget’s “ending fund balance.”

Given this information, it would have been more accurate to call the story the “$100 million question.” I apologize for the error.