Posted on 12/30/2009 11:12:41 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
December 31, 2009
New York State Has First Deficit in General Fund
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
ALBANY — New York is about to achieve a dubious milestone: For the first time in history, the state’s main bank account is poised to end the year in the red.
After months of plunging revenues and weeks of budget battles, New York had a negative balance of $174 million in its general fund on Wednesday, with nearly $1 billion in bills owed by day’s end. Every sign pointed to the account’s still being in the hole when 2010 begins. To fill the gap, New York will be forced to rely on its own version of overdraft protection by raiding its short-term investment pool — a kind of statewide checking account. But that account itself is dangerously low, with only about $800 million on hand, compared with a balance in more flush years of as much as $16 billion.
And the lower the short-term balance falls, the harder it is for the state to cover its day-to-day bills and the closer New York moves toward a previously unimaginable eventuality: A government check that bounces.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping!
This is only the beginning.
Gosh. I hope it doesn’t snow in NY this year. How will they pay for drivers and equipment to plow?
What they really need to do (obviously) is raise taxes to produce more revenue for the state.
In fact, forget plowing snow off the streets. Their going to need money to fund the new Medicare spending the federal government is about to force them to pay.
Can’t they just print some more money and hand it out to NYC? After all, it’s just funny money expressed in US dollars rather than in ounces of gold.
How did Bush cause this? Somebody ask Gibbs...
Actually it goes back to Rockefeller. He started the tax and spend explosion that has taken 40 years to blow up! This was completely inevitable. High taxes and abusive regulation has chased out all industry and expanding businesses and high net worth individuals. At recent event I cornered Andy Cuomo, probably our next governor-god help us. I explained to him, Andy, in this day and age, there are around 100k people supporting NYC and NY State—the so-called rich. How do you keep these people when they can move to Florida, Texas or Singapore, where there is no state income tax? His response was honest, which surprised me. He agreed and said that the unions were bankrupting the state and had to be reigned in. We’ll see what he does when he gets in, I am not optimistic.
You are right about that.
Nelson Rockefeller was the first of the modern day "Tax and Spend Rinos."
He threw money around like water.
Basic evidence of his spendthrift ways is that monument of government buildings he built to memorialize himself in Albany.
Ugly, out of place, and inefficient. But costly as all get out.
New York State is handling the deficit by stepping up petty enforcement of various violations that would normally be overlooked. Case in point: 2 weeks ago, I got to pay $140 for doing 34 mph in a 30 mph zone at 5:05am on the way to work (radar).
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