With a fiscal year beginning in most states next week, budget cuts are about to bite.
That means less money for schoolchildren in Florida, the end of help with utility bills for poor Rhode Islanders, and a good chance tuition will increase at Auburn University in Alabama.
“Everything is rising and you have to wonder — when is it going to stop?” said Lauren Hayes, an Auburn senior. She’s expecting a tuition hike after state lawmakers reduced higher-education funding by $157 million and the university responded by proposing a $660 increase for in-state students.
Overall, the state fiscal picture is gloomy and the pain from reductions — many of which take effect July 1 — will be widespread:
• In Florida, basic spending on schoolchildren will drop by $131 per student. Bonuses for schools that earn top grades from the state will shrink to $85 per student from $100.
• In California, with the nation’s biggest anticipated deficit at $17 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed deep cuts in Medi-Cal, the state’s health-insurance program for poor families and children.
• In New Jersey, lawmakers have proposed eliminating free state police patrols for rural communities that lack police departments.
A midyear survey of state finances by the nation’s state budget officers showed state spending nationally will grow by just 1 percent in the new fiscal year. That’s down from average growth of 6.7 percent over the past three decades.
