Free Republic

President Obama hopes to use money still unspent from the $787-billion economic stimulus plan to fight the nation’s 10% unemployment rate, and one of the ideas on the table is to channel money to states to keep them from laying off public employees. But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of Americans favor providing federal bailout funds to states with serious financial problems. Fifty-eight percent (58%) oppose giving bailout money to financially troubled states. On top of that, 56% of Americans oppose the passage of another economic stimulus package this year. While House Speaker Nancy...

In Oregon, one in four people can’t find full-time jobs Here’s the thing that worries unemployed Woodstock resident George Snipes: What if things are worse, much worse, than we are being told? They are, says Andrew Sum, an economist who heads the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. Sum has analyzed employment data for all 50 states, and he says that those charts provide statistical verification of what Snipes feels in his gut: Oregon’s 12.2 percent official unemployment rate is something of a red herring and far from a true indicator of the social hardship taking...

States have been hammered by the national recession and will end up resolving a cumulative budget gap exceeding $281 billion, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) new report on state budgets. Gaps began opening in fiscal year (FY) 2008, and are expected to continue through FY 2011 and beyond. When enacting their budgets for FY 2009, 44 states collectively resolved a $40.3 billion budget gap. But those actions were not enough to keep budgets balanced. Just a few months into the fiscal year, a new $32 billion gap opened, which eventually climbed to $62.4 billion. Officials hope...

You may not have heard much about it, but there's a quiet movement afoot to reassert state sovereignty in America and stop the uncontrolled expansion of federal government power. Almost half of the state legislatures are considering or have representatives preparing to introduce resolutions which reassert the principles of the 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution and the idea that federal power is strictly limited to specific areas detailed in the Constitution and that all other governmental authority rests with the states. -excerpt- There's a lot of excitement about these bills, but there are also a lot of misconceptions,...

SACRAMENTO – California is facing a $42 billion budget hole that's likely to mean severe cuts to state programs and possibly layoffs, but legislators continue to collect $173 a day for expenses when they're in Sacramento.

Democrats do not see the Constitution as a limit on their actions. In fact, Democrats don't see any rules or laws as limits on what they think they can do. They imagine that they can do anything they want no matter what the law says. Democrats are essentially lawless creatures. Further proof of this came this week in the Pittsburgh City Council during the debate on an unconstitutional gun bill the city was trying to institute. After the lopsided vote was over -- with the anti-constitution side winning -- Councilman Tonya Payne told everyone that would listen that she didn't...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces a lot of heat for proposing drastic budget cuts that slash services for children, the poor and the elderly while allowing thousands of criminals back on the streets to prey upon children, the poor and the elderly. Some even question how the governor can so glibly suggest closing state parks while maintaining an increasingly costly and aggressive public relations operation to promote himself. The governor surely has a lot to answer for in how he's handled the state budget, which has been filled to overflowing by years of booming property values. But with his outlandish proposal...

I just got done reviewing the Ohio State link at packing.org. To say I am slightly confused is an understatement. How does some punk city government write laws that usurp Federal and State Firearms laws? Are not laws regarding firearms Federal and State Issues? What if we started writing laws regarding who can practice law or medicine on a city-by-city basis? What about driving privileges on a county-by-county basis. This is absolutely flipping NUTS! What say you FR lawyers, any advice?

I thought we might need to start finding all of the disaster readiness plans for each state. I found this for TN.

As expected, both the House and Senate went “sine die” this morning, ending a 30-day special session that, for all practical purposes, ended more than two weeks ago when the House rejected school finance reform. Gov. Rick Perry is expected to hold a news conference early this afternoon, where he’ll likely tell us what comes next. Few around the Capitol expect Perry to call a third special session on school finance reform until the Texas Supreme Court rules this fall on whether the current system is unconstitutional. That means lawmakers are free to go home — and find out hear...

Regionalism - dealing with public policy issues on a level that goes beyond city or county boundaries but is smaller than the state as a whole - gained an official toehold in the 1960s and 1970s with the reorganization of major state agencies along regional lines and the creation of multi-jurisdictional umbrella organizations ... (snip) Regional "councils of governments" that had hitherto been mere gatherers of information and debating forums began exerting some real influence, especially in the transportation field and thus indirectly on land use patterns. As they did, local politicians began jockeying for influence within those COGs, as...

Key lawmakers in both houses say momentum for gaming could swell once legislators get a fix on funding gaps for public schools, health care, criminal justice and higher education in the 2006-07 state budget. "Gambling has a chance of resurrecting itself," said Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, "just because it's going to be hard to make everything balance." And while conservative opponents of gaming say they still have enough clout to thwart the efforts in the GOP-controlled Legislature, their political rivals also like their chances. Bill Stinson, a lobbyist for the pro-casino group Let the...

FROM MONORAIL TAX TO STEALTH INTERNET TAX –COMING SOONFeb 03, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comby staff reportsIn King’s County, Washington, residents are discovering that a monorail tax may drag on for another 15 years. And in Washington DC, congressional committee studying tax reform, the Joint Committee on Taxation, announced it was considering expanding the three percent tax on telecommunications to cover all data communications services to end users, including cell phones, broadband, dial-up, cable modems, and DSL links. Taxes never die – nor does it seem in the United States these days that they ever get much smaller. Like a virus, taxes...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A plan to reorganize state government that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release next week will propose eliminating one third of the state work force, hundreds of state boards and commissions while possibly saving $32 billion over the next five years. Details in the 2,500-page report obtained Friday by The Associated Press also include contracting out government work to private contractors and requiring college and university students perform community service. Months in the making, the sweeping report by the California Performance Review Board is already being called a power grab by critics and would mark the biggest reorganization...

With Republicans on a national spending spree of historic proportions, it is reassuring to see a governor still fighting to limit the size and scope of government. Whereas the GOP majority in Washington has presided over an increase in domestic discretionary spending of eight percent per year, Mark Sanford of South Carolina has kept his state's increase to a mere one percent. In recent history, only one politician has done better. Ronald Reagan actually cut spending by an average of 1.3 percent per year over his two terms. Gov. Sanford likes the Reagan comparison and, indeed, has set him...

PIKEVILLE, KY – If voters want to know more about the race for Kentucky Supreme Court, it is just a mouse-click away. Will T. Scott, who is a non-partisan candidate for the Kentucky Supreme Court in the 7th District on November 2, 2004, officially launched his campaign website today. It is on the Internet at www.willtscott.com. “The website is intended to directly communicate with people about our campaign. They can see who I am, what my qualifications are, and why I’m running. More importantly, they can “be the judge” in this campaign,” Scott said. Scott referred to a section “You...

SACRAMENTO – A team of bureaucrats picked by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is quietly preparing a comprehensive reorganization of state government larger than any attempted in California history.The plan, expected to be complete by April 30, would close down whole departments and consolidate others. Up to 200 state boards and commissions and 1,500 political appointees would be eliminated. Administration officials declined to specify reorganization proposals. But interviews with those who have been briefed or interviewed by planners suggest several likely recommendations: • Consolidate most energy regulation under a newly created energy secretary picked by the governor. Regulation now resides in various...

SAN DIEGO — Arnold Schwarzenegger, beginning to anticipate victory in the California recall election, yesterday released a 10-point plan for his first 100 days in office. The plan includes ending the huge tax exemption given to Indian casinos, and repealing new laws that increase the tax on automobiles and allow illegal immigrants to obtain state driver's licenses. "I'm not here to talk about campaigning; I'm here to talk about governing," Mr. Schwarzenegger said at a Sacramento rally. Mr. Schwarzenegger's campaign has gained a lot of momentum in recent weeks, according to a Los Angeles Times poll released yesterday. Fifty-six percent...

CALIFORNIANS FOR SCHWARZENEGGER RADIO:60 "TAX" JON COUPAL: THIS IS JON COUPAL, PRESIDENT OF THE HOWARD JARVIS TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO WE SENT THE POLITICIANS A MESSAGE WITH PROPOSITION 13. THIS YEAR WE CAN SEND ANOTHER MESSAGE BY RECALLING GRAY DAVIS AND REPLACING HIM WITH ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, A STRONG FISCAL CONSERVATIVE. HE WILL REPEAL THE CAR TAX AND STAND AGAINST MORE TAXES. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I STRONGLY SUPPORT PROPOSITION 13 AND WILL FIGHT ANY PROPOSAL WHICH SEEKS TO CHANGE IT. I AM IN PRINCIPLE AGAINST TAXING, BECAUSE I FEEL THAT THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA HAVE BEEN PUNISHED ENOUGH. FROM THE TIME...

<p>State governments spent themselves into financial crises by routinely building budgets that outstripped inflation and population growth during the 1990s, a Cato Institute report suggests.</p> <p>Had states limited new spending to a "benchmark" percentage equal to their combined inflation and population growth rates and returned any excess revenue to taxpayers, the conservative think tank said most would not be in as dire straits now.</p>