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Published Tuesday, January 12, 2010 in Opinion

It's wise for lawmakers to get budget ideas from top business executives

Editorial

The Georgia General Assembly opened its 2010 session in Atlanta Monday. With critical issues facing our state, there has been a general consensus the state budget is the most critical issue facing Gov. Sonny Perdue and lawmakers this session.

By law Georgia has to operate with a balanced budget. Recently, that has meant massive budget cuts. As state revenue collections continue to lag, major cuts will be required this year and likely next year and beyond.

In addition to making those cuts this year, there is a groundswell of thought among lawmakers that it's time to look ahead for ways to restructure government so that it can thrive on less revenue.

To come up with a long-range plan for restructuring, government is turning to the business community for help.

On Monday Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle announced the creation of a seven-member budget task force made up of executives from some of our state's major companies -- like Georgia Power, Atlanta Gas Light, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and Deloitte and Touche -- to come up with recommendations by February.

The idea is to use these professionals' experience in cutting back in their companies during the recession to help formulate a long-term plan for state government to cutback.

While government executives -- like Perdue -- often recruit outsiders to serve on commissions to make recommendations, its unusual for legislative chambers to do so.

This outside budget task force will have no official power. It will simply make recommendations which must be approved by the House, Senate and governor.

We like the idea of the outside budget task force. Drawing on the experiences and expertise of top business executives in our state could be helpful in resolving this critical budget crunch this year and in future years.