Last Saturday evening, my wife and I went to dinner with the mayor of Cedar Hills, Mike McGee and his wonderful wife Audrey.  (House District 57 encompasses all of the City of Cedar Hills.)  Mike was appointed by the Cedar Hills City Council to replace Brad Sears as Mayor, June 29, 2004, and then handily won re-election when his final opponent dropped out of the race a few weeks prior to the November 2005 election.  Mayor McGee and the Cedar Hills City Council have done a remarkable job balancing the ever-increasing needs and wants of one of our state’s fastest growing bedroom communities.  And, a more politically engaged community you won’t find anywhere!

A major dinner topic was the state’s $355.5 million new budget surplus projections.  Fascinating, I know!  I have a tendency to talk “hard” numbers during this kind of social conversation, and, I mistakenly misquoted (slightly) a couple of numbers to the Mayor and wanted to set the record straight.

In an effort to clarify what the Legislature and the Governor did last General Session (2006) with our state budget dollars, I have included a link to the State Budget Overview document (.pdf format).  This comprehensive eleven-page overview produced by the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst clearly illustrates where every dollar of the revenues collected by the state (or will be collected) is being expended departmentally during the coming year.

Happy reading!

Note: The figures provided in the State Budget Overview also include the $1,170,000,000 surplus numbers discussed exhaustively throughout the 2006 General Session (which we spent or will spend) minus the $70 million dollars still sitting on the table, earmarked by the Legislature and the Governor for Personal Income Tax reform/cuts.