Finding Money for the General Fund

I believe that this helps to answer question #1 from my post 2 days ago.

In order to fund General Fund programs without a tax increase, Gov. Riley's budget:

• Shifts costs for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) from the General Fund to the Education Trust Fund. CHIP's budget is $23 million.
• Uses $80 million from the Capital improvement Trust Fund to pay state bond debt normally covered by the General Fund, and
• Limits the increase in Medicaid funding to $65 million, rather than the $129 million originally sought by the administration, due to successful negotiations with the federal government.
• Transfers costs for audits of school systems and other education-related activities from the General Fund to the Education Trust Fund.

Predictably, the AEA's Paul Hubbert has already announced his opposition to many of the Governor's plans, especially the plan to shift costs of some programs into the Education Trust Fund. Hubbert said, "We're just not going to stand for it. We'll do everything we can to defeat an effort like this."