Governor’s budget delivered

Yesterday Governor Brian Sandoval delivered his State of the State speech (in case you missed it, you can watch it online) and his proposed budget for the 2011-2013 biennium. Assembly Speaker John Oceguera provided the Democratic response, which you can also watch.

This morning in Carson City, the Legislative Commission’s Budget Subcommittee (essentially the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committee prior to the gavel dropping to open the regular session) began its review of the budget’s specifics.

For your information, here are two documents outlining the Governor’s approach to meeting our constitutional obligation to balance our budget:

• Budget Overview (pdf)
• Executive Budget 2011-2013 (pdf)

While I, like many of my legislative colleagues are committed to working with the Governor and welcome his fresh perspective on the difficult choices we have to make in bridging our $2.7 billion budget shortfall, as we learned today in our first hearing, many of the cuts he is proposing have dramatic consequences for Nevada’s students and families (read the Las Vegas Sun’s overview.) In the coming days, we will continue our review, and then begin the complicated process of working together to come up with a legislative budget in response.

I encourage everyone concerned with the proposed budget to watch our hearings online (schedule) and to attend our budget town halls this Saturday at 9am- the Reno location being the Washoe County Commission Chambers, 1001 E. Ninth Street.