mr. stockman edison. you may begin. >> thank you.m the executive director of the national association of state budget officers and with me is dr. ray schapock. today we are releasing our fiscal report which we do twice a year, and we have been doing this report for well over 30 years now. unfortunately, i have to report that these are some of the worst numbers in the have ever seen. for the first time ever, actual spending for the states is going to decline this fiscal year 2009 and fiscal year 2010, 2 years and a row. the last time this occurred, the only other time that state had an actual outright decline in expenditures was in 1983. that was just a little below the line, about.7%. let me give you some numbers. state spending is estimated to decline 2.2% this fiscal year, which everyone knows ends on june 30th. we are projecting state expenditures will have an actual outright decline of 2.5%. that is very significant, both because this is 2 years in a row for the first time, also because these numbers are much more significant in