Posted on 08/09/2008 11:46:14 AM PDT by shrinkermd
But if history is a guide, governors and legislators across the country will seek to avoid the difficult choices that are required. Instead, they will likely pass the costs of the services that we enjoy today on to our children and grandchildren, through creatively deceptive budgeting.
This is a time-honored practice. In 1991, the State of New York sold Attica prison to none other than itself. The buyer was a state agency that financed the $200 million purchase price by issuing bonds. The agency then leased the prison back to the state, with the lease payments being equal to the debt service on the bonds.
In substance, of course, the transaction was nothing more than a borrowing arrangement the equivalent of borrowing $200 million from the buyers of the bonds. Nevertheless, the state booked the entire sale price as revenue for the year. The previous year, the state sold the Cross Westchester Expressway to the New York Thruway Authority in other words, to itself.
New York is not the only state fond of this sort of budgetary dissembling. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California wants to reduce his states deficit by borrowing money from the future. His plan is to issue $15 billion in bonds that are backed by future lottery revenues. More than a third of that money would be used to ease Californias current-year deficit.
Borrowing from the future to pay for the present is, unfortunately, becoming routine. In 2006, Indiana leased a toll road to a foreign consortium from Australia and Spain. The state received $3.8 billion upfront by surrendering the next 75 years of toll revenues. .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Our state controller (California) said yesterday that our budget situation isn’t as bad as made out to be. We will still be solvent all the way through October.
Yee-haw! That’s like a whole 3 months away, nothing to worry about here, I guess that whole $15 billion deficit wasn’t that big of a deal - I mean when you have an entire eternity-like 3 month period not to worry about it.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Selling off prisons, highways, and schools is next-up in Arnold’s playbook (my prediction).
It’s payoff time for his big donors.
Cuomo was pi$$ed about it, and immediately started coming up with other options of wiping out the debt he had helped create. Besides raising fees on just about everything, and laying off many Civil Service employees, another option he chose was to lag (hold back) one week's pay of State workers. We would work 5 days without pay. The 5 days pay would be given to us upon our retirement or exit from State service. Of course you wouldn't get it if you dropped dead in the meantime. The main issue against this plan was that our salaries had already been lagged two weeks when we started our jobs. We had had to work a month before we even saw our first paycheck, and then it was only for 2 weeks.
Despite protests from the 3 unions, he did it anyway. PERB (Public Employee Relations Board) found he had overstepped his bounds and he was forced to pay us back that money. I doubt we got any interest on it for the time the State had it. Cuomo's popularity went down hill steadily after that, and of course he was beaten by Pataki in '94. I can see the same crap being tried again with Patterson. I'm just glad I'm retired now and the a-holes can't touch me. Well, hopefully they won't screw around with our pensions.
Hahahaha ha. Very funny. Right. Shure.
(sotto voice. "Bartender. I'll have what he's drinking")
At the rate government unfunded entitlement and public employee (hack) pensions are growing, they won't wait for the grandchildren. They will start going after our private pension annuities and increase the death taxes.
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