State agencies and institutions are looking for ways they can cut programs and services by $300 million dollars for the next six months. The legislature will be holding hearings on the budget shortfall in a few days. But this shortfall is not the worst some veteran lawmakers have seen. The co-chairman of the senate appropriations committee, John Russell of Lebanon remembers 1981, when things were also tight. Russell says essential programs won’t be cut, but most other things are on the table. And he says the outlook for financing of state programs in the next fiscal year is not bright.
