Montgomery, AL – Gov. Bob Riley has increased cutbacks in the state education budget because of declining tax collections.
Riley had declared 9 percent proration in December. But he increased it 2 percentage points to 11 percent on Friday.
Riley said tax collections for education have dropped 10 percent since December. At the same time he increased proration, he took the remaining $116 million out of a state rainy day fund to help schools from having a worse spending cut.
Riley says the latest cutback means the state will spend $5.7 billion on education this fiscal year. That's down $1 billion from fiscal 2008.
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