New Jersey Governor Searches for Ways to Balance State Budget by July 1.

Byline: Charles Stile

Feb. 8--Governor McGreevey (N.J.) needs cash -- and quickly.

With only five months to find $2.8 billion to balance the state budget, McGreevey has been inundated with a stream of ideas from political allies and foes, think tanks, and battle-tested warriors of budget wars to help him weather the state's worst fiscal crisis in a decade.

The suggestions would require him to be creative and ruthless, slashing programs and jobs that might anger his most ardent supporters, such as unionized state workers.

Other ideas would minimize pain through bookkeeping maneuvers that would be invisible to the public. Some have the potential of pinching the public's pocketbook.

"One way or another this will be resolved," said Clifford Goldman, state treasurer for former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne (N.J.) and a budget adviser to McGreevey. "The problem is so large that there is going to be, by necessity, very difficult steps that have to be taken, whatever combination they are. There is no easy way out of this."

Unlike the federal government, New Jersey's constitution does not allow …