Consider This...

June 30, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a budget.

Hard-nosed negotiations have produced an agreement today that has many progressive advocates feeling satisfied. Here’s a rundown of the main winners and losers of the budget agreement.

Winners:

--Teachers and state employees, who will get substantial and well-deserved raises

--The richest people in the state, who will be the only people to get an income tax cut

--Schools, which will get more than $100 million in additional funding

--The political process (much more openness in the budget talks this time)

Losers:

--People too poor to afford decent housing

--Lovers of local pork (far fewer special provisions in this budget)

--Schools, which also lose because of a sneaky provision that may cost them more than $30 million in lost sales tax refunds

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