FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE             CONTACT:  Chris Kellogg
October 13, 2003                                502-564-2611, 502-682-7774

 

          Governor Patton has directed Mary Lassiter, the state’s acting budget director, to review the Commonwealth’s fiscal status for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2003-June 30, 2004) in view of the Consensus Forecasting Group’s revenue estimate made at its meeting last Friday.  The group reported that the state’s general fund is projected to take in $262 million less than what the budget requires for the current fiscal year.
          Patton asked Lassiter specifically to determine any cash flow shortage that state government is likely to experience in implementing the budget for the current fiscal year, taking into account federal fiscal relief, the Budget Reserve Trust Fund, other available cash, budgeted expenditures which will not be required to implement the enacted budget and other factors which will mitigate any cash flow shortages without impacting the delivery of services to Kentuckians.
          Patton asked that this review be made available to him by 2 p.m. on Thursday, October 16.