State Senator Phil Williams joined us by phone on Thursday morning discussing an array of issues centering primarily on the state’s budget woes – including possible cuts to Medicaid, the education budget, proposals for a possible state lottery and casino gambling as well as a new Class D Felony classification which will ultimately shift the financial burden of housing inmates from the state level to a local level.

With the annual budget planning process for most state and local governments underway, a Class D Felony category has caused significant concern among those responsible for dealing with the possibility of increasing inmate numbers, with an estimated cost of caring for each inmate being around $48 a day.

Senator Williams indicated that in his opinion the creation of the new Class D Felony would in fact not necessarily lead to more people being incarcerated but would instead lead to the rehabilitation of those who fall under that category:

We also asked where the state currently stands in regard to the budget:

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