Gov't searching for solution to budget shortfall, answer expected in two weeks

The cost of increases in teachers' wages may be lower than zl. 800 million concludes yesterday's preliminary estimates of the Finance Ministry. However, notwithstanding those results the government will soon have to face a difficult task of finding the money for teachers and solving the problem of the Labor Fund and Patient Funds debts. At the moment it refuses to answer the question how it is going to find money for teachers granted by the new Teacher's Act. Yesterday, government spokesman Krzysztof Luft announced that the answer would be known in two weeks time. An additional problem is the lack of fluidity of the Labor Fund. (Rzeczpospolita, page A1, A10) E.B.