VIDEO: Doerflinger Says State ‘Well-Prepared’ To Weather Budget Storm
Chief state budget officer says state ‘well-prepared’ for revenue skid
By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
The state’s chief budget officer on Friday downplayed the potential impact of declining state revenue, saying “the state is well-prepared to handle the challenge” of a second straight year of shrinking appropriations.
“There is still room to run government more efficiently,” said Preston Doerflinger, state secretary of finance and director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.
Doerflinger said he and chief legislative appropriators, Earl Sears of the House and Clark Jolley of the Senate, are already meeting among themselves and with agency heads to start planning for next session and to find ways to cope with a possible revenue failure during the current fiscal year.
“Our message to agencies this year, and it’s a very clear one, is: ‘Do not bring us your pie-in-the-sky wish lists that you do every year,’” Doerflinger said. “Agencies have a tendency to develop budgets that are not realistic. My job is to be the parent in the room and the grown-up in the room.”