State Budgets: Year Ahead Looms As Toughest Yet

[True_Blue]

Source: Huffington Post

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If 2011 is hinting at a national recovery, there is little sign of it in statehouses across the country.

States that already have raided their reserve funds, relied on borrowing or accounting gimmicks, and imposed deep cuts on schools, parks and public transit systems no longer can protect key services in the face of another round of multibillion dollar deficits.

As governors roll out their budget proposals and legislatures convene this month, they do so amid a sputtering economic recovery and predictions of slow growth for years to come. State and local governments face lackluster revenue projections, worries from Wall Street over looming debt and the end of federal stimulus spending.

In the first weeks of 2011, Republican and Democratic governors alike have begun detailing across-the-board pain for education, health care, transportation, public safety and other programs. Some say the year of reckoning for state and local governments is at hand, with calls for structural changes that could radically shift expectations of what services government provides.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/15/state-budgets-year-ahead-_n_809521.html

[Mika]

1. Another tax cut will do the trick.

:nuke:

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[madrchsod]

2. we raised our taxes in illinois

we went from 2+ to 5% income tax which was the first increase in 20 some yrs. the first two yrs will be offset by the fed tax reduction. we also raised corporate tax to 7%. with cuts in some areas illinois may be able to pay it`s bill nearly on time. right now the state is 6-12 months behind on payments.

[Igel]

3. That's the problem with playing kick the can.

Eventually the game stops.

The only hope is that the comptrollers have been fairly conservative--finally--in their estimates so that income outstrips expectations *and* that the legislators don't do the same kinds of foolish things with the surplus that they've done in the past. I give the former a 75% chance of being the case. The latter? It's non-zero, but not by much.