Current revenue forecasts put the current year state budget at a $500-800 million deficit.

• This comes AFTER the State increased taxes last year by nearly $1.5 billion.
• This comes BEFORE we know what will happen to the fate of Chrysler and the rest of our auto industry.
• This comes WITHOUT knowing how many of the thousands of auto employees who recently received buy-out packages will no longer earn income to pay the state income tax.

We could be looking at deficits in the billions. 

We recently produced a report outlining ways of saving over $800 million/year in structural costs.  But it will take time to fully achieve these savings and even they might not be enough.  We need to enact all of those ideas plus many more.  

While blue ribbon committee's are out of vogue, why not use them to identify prisons, community colleges, state universities and school districts that could be consolidated?   What about reformulating revenue sharing and public education spending formulas to require a very high level of administrative efficiency (which only can be reached through large economies of scale) to receive the full state allocation?  Everything has to be on the table.  Is there a better time to get started on this work?