Posted on 12/01/2008 8:10:14 PM PST by marshmallow
California could become the first state in the American union to go broke after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned it is heading for a "fiscal disaster" as a result of the global financial crisis.
Mr Schwarzenegger has declared California to be in a fiscal emergency and called for the state's politicians to work together in a special legislative session to reduce its growing $11bn (£7.4bn) deficit.
That deficit is projected to grow to $28bn over the next 18 months, and the Republican Governor wants politicians from all sides of the divide to work together in order to ensure the state does not run out of cash.
The state of California is reeling not only from fall in investments made in the equity markets, but also from declines in tax revenues and capital gains as a result of the downturn in the business and property markets, not to mention an inability to tap the debt markets for funding.
"Without immediate action, our state is heading for fiscal disaster," Mr Schwarzenegger said in Los Angeles.
"I've had to make tough choices that I wish I didn't have to make, and I know this is a terrible time to raise taxes, but it's also a terrible time to make cuts to very important programmes. But in an emergency like this, we have to take quick action to avoid even worse problems, even if they include decisions that we don't like."
By declaring a fiscal emergency, Mr Schwarzenegger has bought himself a 45-day window in which politicians must work together to find a solution to reduce the deficit. If they fail to do so within that time, all other legislative work must be put on hold until they do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Can we say that where California goes, there goes America......??
ping
No S..T
Democrats and RINOS together will bankrupt and destroy California and the USA.
No excuses. Just gorging at the public troughs.
Sickening.
VERY questionable statement there...
Yet this RINO still hosts global warming summits? What a joke.
What?! Arnie is broke? I thought California had its you know what straight, a playground for democrats and environmental activists? And their broke? How could this be? Well its just California, lets try another state and see what happens, hell let just try all 50, it will work this time, promise.
Since we haven't prevented Californians from leaving that state and infecting other states you have a point. There should be some sort of bug spray to contain them.
They’ll have to invent their own currency, and just print more of it like the federal government does with the national currency. Problem solved....
The cause of all of this debt can be summed up by 1 word: illegals
Get rid of the illegals and you won’t be broke.
It's time to cut back on programs, not raise taxes.
California is further proof socialism doesn’t work.
Well, they just had an emergency meeting of the legislature, and they couldn’t even agree to cut 1/7 of the budget shortfall, let alone actually balance it.
Most of the legislators didn’t even bother to attend the session, and some of them were out of the country on junkets.
Lots of luck getting these guys to do anything, Arnie! You had your window of opportunty after Gray Davis was tossed out, and you blew it. Actually, you turned out to be an even bigger spender than Gray Davis.
Then it should do what any self-respecting government entity should do; start giving billions to private enterprise!
They’ll be migrating east this time.
I was thinking of another word: Leftistpoliticking. :)
I wonder if getting rid of millions of illegals would help?
Can’t Arnold go blow up a bank or something, and then make a lame one-liner afterwards?
It’s so easy. When real businesses lose income they have to restrict bonuses, overtime and even lay people off. They go through middle management periodically and weed out the inevitable army of useless paper pushers that any large business grows in prosperous times. The state needs to do the same thing. Of course, they never will. If they do cut any jobs it will be those functions that actually help the people. All useless parasites will be fully protected.
It’s so simple to just give across the board 10% pay cuts. Deny all bonuses. (Govt managers don’t deserve bonuses anyhow being totally worthless by any rational measure). Any state employees who don’t like it are free to sell their oh-so-valuable skills in the open marketplace (snicker).
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