The Union Leader editorializes about the challenge facing New Hampshire government over the next two years, and the responsibility for the Governor and Legislature to tackle it:
Analysts on both the left and the right expect the next state budget to be at least $550 million in the red. It's probably closer to $600 million. That's because legislators and the governor used that much one-time money to make ends meet. According to the left-leaning New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, 23 percent of the state's general fund budget is one-time money rather than recurring revenues that can be relied upon year after year.
That makes at least $550 million that won't be available for the 2012-2013 budget. The hole would be even bigger if the economy gets worse or the last-minute revenue projections used to fill another $75 million gap in this budget prove optimistic.
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