Senate Finance Committee Chair Lorraine Berry has made it clear that she does not expect Gov. Charles Turnbull's Year 2000 budget to be in effect by the start of the new fiscal year.
"Due to the fact that we have acquiesced to the request of the executive branch of government," Berry said, "definitely there will be no budget in place for Fiscal Year 2000 by Oct. 1."
Berry said last year's budget will remain in effect until the review and revisions of the current proposal are complete. If no further delays occur, she said the review, mark-up and final approval by the full Senate should come in late October.
In previous years it has taken the Finance Committee six to eight weeks to complete its public review of the budget requests of the various government agencies. After that, it has typically taken another week or two to for the budget mark-up conducted behind closed doors.
On the advice of the Senate post auditor, Finance Committee members told Management and Budget director Ira Mills and Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull that the budget they presented on Wednesday, the rescheduled opening date of the budget hearings, contained about $200 million in unsubstantiated revenue projections.
Mills subsequently asked the committee for an extension until Aug. 24 to revise the projections.
The Finance Committee review of the FY2000 budget had originally been scheduled to begin on July 27 but was then postponed to Wednesday.
