Report: 10 (US) states face looming budget disasters

[demoleft]

Source: ap

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A study released Wednesday warns that nine states are barreling toward an economic disaster similar to California's ongoing fiscal crisis that has been marked by IOUs and budget-busting deficits.

The budget woes could mean higher taxes, accelerated layoffs of government employees, more crowded classrooms and fewer services in the coming year for some of the nation's most populous states.

Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin join California as those most at risk of fiscal calamity, according to the report by the Pew Center on the States.

Double-digit budget gaps, rising unemployment, high home foreclosure rates and built-in budget constraints are the key reasons.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_re_us/us_stat...

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damn.
in italy, regions face similar problems. public health care and industrial crisis the first causes.
but the former is not due to public health care system itself - it is due to waste, bad governance and corruption.

the wastes in the sector of public health drags regions to bankruptcy, especially in the centre-south.

[villager]

1. or in general, viz. Western economies: Can you have infinite expansion

..on a clearly finite planet, without eventually hitting a wall?

Seems to be "wall time" these days...

[unhappycamper]

Of course we could stop pissing away $180 million dollars a day

to keep these occupations going. It's only $180 million a day, but it's a start.

[Mari333]

11. +1000000000000000

[Soylent Brice]

15. STOP STATING THE OBVIOUS!!

sheesh...

[skoalyman]

19. sell all bases worldwide and bring all the troops home

[abelenkpe]

2. Read recently that

the majority of home foreclosures are due to job loss. So states get hurt by lower income and property tax revenue, forcing them to lay off workers as well. It's a spiral.

We desperately need more stimulus and more jobs and to stop supporting the notion of outsourcing.

[depakid]

3. Heck of a job stripping so much federal revenue sharing from the stimulus

Sometimes, policy coming out of the Senate is so dysfunctional- and clearly destined to be a disaster that you just have to shake your head.

[Renew Deal]

4. I can't believe NY didn't make the list.

Patterson 2010

[NeoConsSuck]

12. Agree

Before I read the article, I assumed NY to be #2, behind California.

I guess the Wall Street bonuses are helping NY's tax revenues.

[Skink]

18. Isn't the reason Wall street gives bonuses a way to skirt taxes?

[Igel]

31. It's still

income.

And gets taxed as income, at the usual rates for income tax.

Stock options, deferred income, and other things that typically get rolled into the announced compensation package figures cited avoid taxes.

There are sometimes good reasons for packaging salary as bonuses. I've done it myself. But it's hard to explain that what the word "bonus" depends a bit on context and to get somebody to realize that their context isn't exactly universal.

[vinylsolution]

5. What? No mention for Colorado?

Gutted by Republicans, who keep on raping the corpse again and again.

And these idiots are still trying to force through even more tax (i.e. revenue) cuts.

[RKP5637]

7. +1

[Lasher]

6. I feel particularly sorry for Michigan.

The rest of the nation will soon start digging out but it will take them at least a generation to recover, if they ever do.

[mrcheerful]

8. Well Michigans wing nuts have the answer to all of the states woe's

elect more republicons, lower taxes on businesses and that will cause them to stop shipping jobs over to China, oh and make sure you shop at Wally world.

[Laelth]

9. Built-in budget constraints are the main reason, and those are very stupid. n/t

-Laelth

[Mari333]

10. grand rapids mi is laying off 25 % of its city workforce

cops, firefighters, you name it. maybe they should call Dick Devos and ask him to bail them out?

In the meantime, Wall Street CEOs are doing very well.

[blue_onyx]

14. Many other cities will likely have similar cuts

Gov. Granholm told all departments to prepare for a 20% budget cut next year. Schools could get a $500 per pupil cut, on top of the $300 cut they had this year.

I wonder how long the GOP will go before they accept that something needs to be done. Do they really think that letting MI completely collapse while they do nothing will result in big wins for their party?

[Mari333]

16. yeah, my town, out of fear, elected a repub for mayor

over the dem who has been in office for the last 4 yrs.
He will be a lame duck.
There is no money.

[blue_onyx]

17. That's too bad

I know the GOP hopes that will happen on a state-wide scale. I don't think this strategy will work as well as they think it will. The GOP thinks that if they let MI collapse, Gov. Granholm will get all the blame. Polls, however, show that the public blames congress more than the governor for the budget mess.

GOP doesn't have any strong gubernatorial candidates which will hurt its ability to use this "anti-Granholm" strategy. Anyone that does plan to vote for the Republicans out of desperation should remember that it was 12 years of John Engler that got us into this mess.

[BootinUp]

13. Probably another dozen or States missed the list

by a hair.

[TomCADem]

20. Nine U.S. States Face California-Type Budget Crisis, Pew Says

Source: Bloomberg

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- At least nine U.S. states face similar fiscal strains brought on by the global recession as those that left California on the brink of insolvency four months ago, according to the Pew Center for the States.

Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin are dealing with declining tax revenue, resurgent deficits and increasing unemployment and home foreclosure rates, the center, a public policy research group, said in a report. All but New Jersey, Illinois and Wisconsin also have been hampered by a rule requiring a two- thirds legislative vote to approve tax increases, the report said.

Lawmakers in California, which accounts for 13 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, have slashed $32 billion from spending, cutting into funding for schools, universities and welfare programs and raised taxes by $12.5 billion in the last nine months to close budget gaps brought on by the recession. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an $85 billion budget on July 28. The state expects another $14 billion of deficits over the next 19 months.

“California’s problems are in a league of their own,” the report said. “But the same pressures that drove it toward fiscal disaster are wreaking havoc in a number of states, with potentially damaging consequences for the entire country.”


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=anG...

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Oh yay. California with our term limits, 2/3 majority requirements for budgets and taxes, mostly Republican governors over the past 20 years and easy voter adopted propositions is leading the nation once again. Heck, Republicans even want to take term limits national.

[elocs]

21. Wisconsin. That's a bummer but I was expecting it. Oh well. n/t

[HereSince1628]

33. As soon as Doyle said he was done, I've expected calamity

Ah, well. Have much dirt and a private well, I've got the basics to crawl in a hole and badger it out.

[nickinSTL]

22. Illinois' budget is a mess

Public libraries had their funding cut 50% by the legislature.

Thanks to rerouting of federal grants by the Secretary of State, the libraries are facing an up-front cut of only 17% for the next year, but that means that the projects that the grants were intended for, aren't going to be funded - seriously impacting library service throughout the state.

[Aragorn]

23. intentional?

sort of? think about it. just don't think harder than doublespeak allows.

This message brought to you by the MOT.

[customerserviceguy]

24. I'm surprised that New York didn't make that list

Governor Paterson has called the legislature into session to see where they can cut $3.2 billion from the state's budget.

[no_hypocrisy]

25. Chris Christie, the governor elect of NJ wants to declare a fiscal emergency.

He wants to:

1) Void contracts made with unions during the Corzine term;
2) Cut taxes;
3) Fire state workers (read, union workers).

An emergency declaration may allow him to bypass the legislature. (Both houses are democratic.)

[Hawkeye-X]

26. Fine, Legislature should prepare an article of impeachment

as soon as he starts doing stupid shit.

Hawkeye-X

[katkat]

28. NJ

I certainly hope RI can do that. Here we have hugely overcompensated unionized government workers. The state will never get on a sound footing financially with its incredibly corrupt union/legislature and enormous property taxes on an otherwise relatively poor population.

[tasgator]

27. Florida --what can I say?

here in Florida we are overrun with those worthless Grover Norquist, line my pocket Republicans that have gutted our social net. Starting with a bunch of Dems who thought they were playing fair in redistricting in 1990 and gave the state to the Thugs over the next ten years to the implementation of the Jeb! revolution to gut education, social services and cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, we are now dominated by the "I am the most conservative asshole in the state" republicans who only care about pandering to the teabaggers. And the Dems can't get anyone on a state wide ticket worth a crap who stands a chance of winning a statewide office.

[Psephos]

29. yo, tasgator - welcome to the hood n/t

[bullimiami]

30. republicans devastated florida. born and raised there and happily almost 2 years gone.

[yurbud]

32. California let the GOP set up rules that allow them to dictate budget & taxes even as minority

We need a 2/3 majority to pass taxes or budgets here, and the GOP votes as a block to protect the wealthy from taxes.

[ThoughtCriminal]

34. 7 on the list require supermajorities for tax increases

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpe...

Arizona
California
Florida
Michigan
Nevada
Oregon
Rhode Island