"$4 Billion budget shortfall".
IMHO there really is no such thing as a "budget shortfall". What that actually means is spending shot past where it was intended to be limited to so now they are in the hole and have to take from Peter to pay Paul.
If they are having to cut programs to free up money to be paid to somebody methinks that somebody is likely those with union contracts that the state is obligated to meet, and cannot cut.
The loud crowd that likes to scream about the plight of the poor, etc. should shut their pie holes because it is their pie holes that are being stuffed with the proceeds of cutting these programs.
Times are tough all over and everyone is having to tighten up their belts a few notches, we are all in this together.
That's a phrase union organizers like to spout to their minions, "We are all in this together". The average Joe understands that phrase as meaning "We Americans, all of us". I think the union types have a different definition for it, that of a pillaging and plundering mob with a parasite/ host mentality.