Rhode Island lawmakers will get an estimate of the budget deficit for the next fiscal year during a meeting this Thursday of the House Finance Committee.
That red ink will be on top of an almost $42 million current-year deficit. In a recent memo, the state Budget Office said most of that is because of additional spending by state agencies. A $7 million deficit for the Department of Corrections, for example, is due mostly to higher drug costs for federally required hepatitis C treatment for inmates.
Governor Gina Raimondo will present her plan for eliminating the red ink when she submits her next budget proposal in January. Lawmakers typically make changes to the governor’s budget before passing a revised version ahead of the July first start of the next fiscal year.
Raimondo’s office says the governor has reduced the state’s long-term deficits since she took office in 2015. But lawmakers have not started a new session without a fresh deficit in almost 20 years.
