Senate Finance Committee Chair Lorraine Berry has made it clear Gov. Charles Turnbull's first budget cannot go into effect by the start of the new fiscal year.
"Definitely there will be no budget in place for Fiscal Year 2000 by Oct. 1," Berry said.
The Turnbull administration's request for a three-week delay in presenting its figures makes it impossible for her committee and the full Senate to complete their work on time, Berry said.
The Finance Comnmittee granted the request yesterday, Wednesday, the day the committee was to have started dissecting the budget proposal. The new start date is Aug. 24.
If no further delays occur, Berry said, the review, mark-up and final approval by the full Senate should come in late October. Then the budget bill goes to the governor.
By law, the current budget will remain in effect until the legislature and the governor sign off on a new set of figures.
After hearing from their own post auditor, Finance Committee members told Management and Budget director Ira Mills and Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull the budget presented Wednesday contained about $200 million in unsubstantiated revenue projections.
During that meeting Mills requested, and received, the extension until Aug. 24 to revise the budget.
