Cash Surplus No Windfall, Lawmakers Told

State legislative leaders were further cautioned on Friday about the financial position the $19 million cash surplus left them in with two months remaining in the current budget year.

Jeff Youtz, director of the Legislature’s Division of Budget and Policy, said there will likely be millions of dollars of demands against whatever cash cushion finally exists on June 30 combined with the money budget writers saved by jettisoning a 2 percent state worker pay raise for the coming year and scrimping on other 1998 budget expenditures.

Assuming that tax receipts increase the projected 5.5 percent during the 1998 spending year - more than twice what the increase will be for the current year - and the surplus on April 30 does not erode, uncommitted cash would total about $30 million.

But $6.2 million will be immediately siphoned from that to assure public schools receive their entire allotment for this year. The money would otherwise come from the Budget Reserve Account, which is already down to $28.5 million.