State Budget Troubles Worsen — This can’t be good.
States are facing a great fiscal crisis. At least 44 states faced or are facing shortfalls in their budgets for this and/or next year, and severe fiscal problems are highly likely to continue into the following year as well. Combined budget gaps for the remainder of this fiscal year and state fiscal years 2010 and 2011 are estimated to total more than $350 billion.
Found by John Ligums.
Wow, so surprising — governors and assemblies that won’t cut spending OR increase taxes and expect “someone else” to make up the difference. And we wonder why the country is falling apart.
I’m all for the feds backing the states — if the states that get fed funds enact MANDATORY budget balancing for the next 10 years.
Oh, that’s right, nobody does that any more. I guess I shouldn’t have paid all my debt off four years ago, I could have been bailed out and saved myself thousands!!!
Ow! I’ve got the solution. OUTSOURCE! Well, that worked for everything else, including most of US citizens’ jobs. And our elected officials did nothing to save those jobs, except when it benefited the largest corporate paychecks. Usually corporations that depend on tax dollars, thru defense contracts. There will always be money for space exploration, even when the 44 states are officially broke. Where in the freakin US Constitution does it say that the Space Program must be funded before all else? It’s all gravy for Lockheed and Boeing. They don’t have to prove they’re producing anything useful, and on time. Space gets a blank check, merely to exist. And if it goes away, the aerospace giants won’t be “in the black” with a major war, to create a heightened demand for their planes. But now, the near lack of concern about protecting most of its tax base, has states scrambling to get paid what they’re use to. But why shouldn’t they take a pay cut (and job cuts) like the rest of us?
It’s time to cut more trees and print more bonds. Then hope some idiot will buy them.
Some day there will be no idiot. That’s when the shit hits the fan.
#2,
YEP, and we cut off Mexico and canada..
MOSt of the problems STARTED with Clinton cutting EVERYTHING to balance the budget…HE GOT CLOSE..
Then BUSH got in, and went to war and cut EVERYTHING ELSE Even MORE.
they cant even protect out IMPORT locations and scan them for ANYTHING..Imports from CLANDESTINE locations can only be scanned and checked 10%, for GET the imports from FRIENDLY locations.
THEN we took the RESERVES and USA internal protections away and SHIPPED them to WAR, BECAUSE we couldnt afford RAISEING MILITARY PAY.
THEN we pay BLACK WATER MERCS, to protect SPECIAL INTERESTS..
THEN they tell us the OIL from IRAQ, will pay for the war? SO, they raise International OIL PRICES..
1. IT STILL COMES OUT OF YOUR POCKET..
2. IF the STATE cant raise the money, the FEDS will..IT STILL COMES OUT OF YOUR POCKET..
3. for some AWFUL REASONING they are treating the GOV. as a CORP..THEY DONT PAY NOTHING, IT STIL COMES OUT OF YOUR POCKET..
4. RAISE the min wage so we can TAX more people, $1 in 2 years..IT STILL COMES OUT OF YOUR POCKET.
5. CORP HIGHER wages, CUT the lower person, WIPE out 200 jobs for 1 CEO to get paid…Prices dont change, COST of goods DIDNT..IT STILL COMES OUT OF YOUR POCKET..
6. Oil gets to our BEACHES, from 1 corp. Is sold around 3-4 times, then BOUGHT BACK by the same corp and SOLD to you, at an EXAGGERATED PRICE..IT STILL COMES OUT OF YOUR POCKET..
7. Iphone makes a phone that OTHERS can also make for LESS and charges DOUBLE what ANYONE ELSE WOULD…
8. A GOV that is SUPPOSED to put up ALL contracts to an OPEN bid…ISNT. They just HAND it to 1 contractor AT ANY PRICE HE WANTS..
9. Military goods that ARE PAID FOR, for the LAST 20 years…ARNT THERE, or are CHEAP KNOCK OFFS..
10. a GOV that cant keep a Standing army of 1% of USA citizens…CAN give MONEY to BANKS, CARS CORPS, and any one they WANT..but CANT/WONT pay a DECENT military wage/education/training..
11. Congress and representatives GET HOW MUCH?? time to SCARE THE HELL out of them and vote for the OLD STIPEND SYSTEM..
The only way to fix this problem is either to spin the wheel of monetary inflation, or to increase state fees, taxes and levies. Of course, that money, one way or another, comes out of the pockets of the shell-shocked American consumer, which will only reinforce our downward spiral.
It is not a revenue problem.
Classic economic problem. The state and local governments raise taxes and fees but refuse to cut expenses.
Check out the two biggest culprits:
California (refuses to cut expenses due to their liberal hands-off attitude toward border control)
and
New York (refuses to cut expenses due to their liberal sleep-in-the-same-bed attitude with state and local unions).
Up in North Dakota here. Nice to have extra cash. We make up for it in bitter cold and ass loads of snow though.
Civil war! Civil war!
There is no crisis. All these morons have to do is cut spending down to revenue levels. CA, which has had growing revenue levels over the last decade but has just decided to spend more.
Oh yes, cutting spending by >50% is so damn easy, I don’t know why we didn’t think of that. I’m glad we have you around to enlighten us, Paddy-O.
# 11 Li said, “Oh yes, cutting spending by >50% is so damn easy…”
Why 50%? 10% on an annual basis would have sufficed. You don’t track these budgets, do you?
Paddy-O is right.
Spending should never exceed revenue. How hard is that to understand?
for a huge chunk of these states ther isnt much left to cut..
ohio already has one of the highest tax rates.
a large portion of the manufacturing jobs took off to china and mexico… Thank you NAFTA…
more jobs are going away, most of the countries autos are made in the region…
businesses here are closing at an alrming rate, in the company i work for we’ve lost quite a few customers… some are on the edge…
it isnt looking good here… it hasnt been looking good here for some time…
# 14 AdmFubar said, “for a huge chunk of these states ther isnt much left to cut.. ohio already has one of the highest tax rates.”
CA 2005/2006 tax revenue: $62,900,000,000, 2007/2008: $71,256,000,000.
Pure incompetence…
Intresting …
Texas and West Va not facing budget crunch.
Texas has OIL
WV has COAL
Energy rich states seem to have done good.
The others? Maybe cattle and wheat. Smaller population densities.
45% of the Ohio budget is spent on “Health and Human Services”. You can’t tell me there is no fat in this $12 billion that can’t be cut.
The 09 expense budget increased by 6% from 08. How about putting a freeze on the incrase?
Perhaps we could stop funding people like Hernandez & Nunez:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545
# 16 scadragon said, “Intresting …
… Energy rich states seem to have done good.”
Actually, all save W.V. have either a Repub Gov and/or one or more branches of the leg controlled by Repubs.
It’s all about controlling spending…
Cow-Paddy,
Interesting that you want to just slash spending across the board. So which programs would you cut?
*
The problem has been getting super serious over the past eight years. More and more manufacturing has moved to China. Those were well paying jobs that created wealth. They, and the money they created, are gone yet the States still have the same requirements,: education, Medicaid / Medicare, transit and transportation, cities, police, justice, etc.
Of course, the right wing nuts that helped get us into this situation still want to support large corporations and hammer the people. Fucktards!
#18, Of course, the right wing nuts that helped get us into this situation still want to support large corporations and hammer the people. Fucktards!
Yeah, all those senators and representatives that voted for the bailout and the stimulus package should have been fired.
# 18 Mr. Fusion said, “Interesting that you want to just slash spending across the board. So which programs would you cut?”
As for CA (which I’m most familiar) just not having yearly auto increases on programs for the last 3 years was enough.
You don’t know much about the CA budget, do you?
Interesting that you want to just slash spending across the board. So which programs would you cut?
http://tinyurl.com/9xopsq
Here’s the 2007 budget for Ohio. Take your pick. Just browsing through it for a couple of minutes, I saw a dozen items that were questionable.
Hard choices have to be made. States either have the money to continue funding things best left to the private sector or they don’t.
45% of the 09 Ohio budget goes to Health and Human Services. I am confident there is plenty of fat in this make some serious cuts. From what I have read the expenses for 2009 increased by 6%. What about a budget freeze?
Perhaps Ohio could consider not giving money away to these folks in this NPR sob story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545
Two right wing nuts have so far responded to my challenge. Yet neither will put down any spending that deserves to be cut.
All these programs are necessary. All State governments have been trimming “fat” for the past 25 years. There just isn’t any “fat” left to cut. So again, WHAT PROGRAMS WOULD YOU CUT ???
Follow up, now how will you deal with the people who’s programs got cut?
# 21 LibertyLover said, “http://tinyurl.com/9xopsq Here’s the 2007 budget for Ohio. Take your pick.”
Thanks. Off hand, I saw a few hundred million that could be lopped off without major impact. If I had a quick briefing on each line item I’d find much more, I’m sure.
#22, One wing nut having to hold another wing nut’s hand. This is terrible.
@Mr. Fusion – you are totally ignorant. There is tons of fat in the system. Every program could be cut across the board by 10%. Government agencies are extremely inefficient and could get the same amount done with less. The private sector does it all the time. Government agencies never get more efficient. If any company lost customers, they would trim their staff. Why can I go to Costco and get a membership with my photo on it in under 5 minutes but if I have to renew my driver’s license at the DMV, I have to wait 4 hours in line. Costco has a lower ratio of employee time to memberships than the DMV has to its licensees. If you have a problem with a DVD player you purchased from Best Buy, how hard is it to talk to someone to get the problem fixed. If you have a problem with an unjust parking ticket and have to deal with government, how is this experience compared to the DVD player. Government provides a poor product, poor service, and high prices. If we put the same standards on government as the company we buy our socks from, government would be run better, provide better services, and be 30% less expensive.
#25–thermo==haven’t read such faulty reasoning by analogy in a long time. Did you make this up yourself, or get spoon fed it from somewhere else? Could you post a link to the source?
Yes–the government enforcing licensing regulations is just the same as a consumer getting repair services.
If its not just exactly the same, its in those differences that you “might” find the justification for different experiences.
Silly.
@Bobbo It’s not silly. That’s the problem. Government is providing a product just as any company is. Government has to look at itself this way. The USPS delivers mail for $0.42 and it still looses money. If UPS was allowed to deliver mail (which the government does not allow it to) they could deliver mail for $0.27 and make a profit. If the Government was as efficient as companies, they would be less expensive. They could do more for less.
Raise taxes on everyone that has a job! Raid social security! Sell the Washington monument and the national parks to ‘foreigners’!
Sell the interstate highways to private ‘interests’.
We have plenty of ‘assets’ to sell.
Rent out our armed forces…
Turn out the lights.
Turn off the heat.
Park the car.
or, start another world war!
#19
RE: Spending
CA approved 9 billion in bonds for a idiotic bullet train. How about dumping every bond until the budget is balanced? That would provide a boat load in savings on interest payments alone.