This week Mr. John Guyer spoke at our seminar. Mr. Guyer is the Director of the Bureau of Budget Analysis within the Governor’s Office of the Budget. Mr. Guyer is responsible for directing the development and administration of the Commonwealth’s operating budget. He also reviews fiscal policy and legislative issues to make funding recommendations. Monitoring program performance and the alignment of spending plans with agency goals is also one of his duties.
During the discussion Mr. Guyer reviewed the budget process. Mr. Guyer discussed the timeline of the process. As soon as a budget is passed for any fiscal year, agencies begin looking at their own budgets. The Office of the Budget gives agencies guidelines to help them make decisions on the funds that they will request. These guidelines include projections of the economy. What made this latest budget impasse so hard was the fact that the projections underestimated how hard Pennsylvania would be hit by the declining economy. Mr. Guyer helped us to understand the budget process.
*In the photo, Mr. Guyer (left) is speaking with Dr. Geiser-Getz
