Posted on 02/17/2009 11:27:08 PM PST by americanophile
LOS ANGELES — The state of California — its deficits ballooning, its lawmakers intransigent and its governor apparently bereft of allies or influence — appears headed off the fiscal rails. Since the fall, when lawmakers began trying to attack the gaps in the $143 billion budget that their earlier plan had not addressed, the state has fallen into deeper financial straits, with more bad news coming daily from Sacramento. The state, nearly out of cash, has laid off scores of workers and put hundreds more on unpaid furloughs. It has stopped paying counties and issuing income tax refunds and halted thousands of infrastructure projects.
Twenty-thousand layoff notices will go out on Tuesday morning, Matt David, the communications director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said Monday night. “In the absence of a budget we need to realize this savings and the process takes six months,” Mr. David said.
After negotiating nonstop from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday night on a series of budget bills that would have closed a projected $41 billion deficit, state lawmakers failed to get enough votes to close the deal and adjourned. They returned to the Capitol on Monday morning and labored into the evening but still failed to reach a deal. They planned to reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday to go at it again.
California has also lost access to much of the credit markets, nearly unheard of among state municipal bond issuers. Recently, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the state’s bond rating to the lowest in the nation.
California’s woes will almost certainly leave a jagged fiscal scar on the nation’s most populous state, an outgrowth of the financial triptych of above-average unemployment, high foreclosure rates and plummeting tax revenues, and the state’s unusual budgeting practices.
“No other state is in the kind of crisis that California...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Here's some advice, cut your workforce the way the private sector has to do, stop spending on useless BS and spend reasonable amounts on what needs to be done. I know you won't listen Arnold, but cut taxes too, especially taxes for business, do what ever you can to encourage new businesses to come to CA.
Instead you are going to raise taxes, screw the tax base even more and run off business faster than it is already leaving. Way to go, a**hat.
"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
“...grab the popcorn and hope for the worst! Who cares anymore!”
Lol, yes humour is pretty much all that is left. It is the only thing that will get us through this.
If this budget passes, the sales tax in L.A. County will be 10%!! Can you imagine trying to compete? Add to that our punishing workers comp. laws, environmental regulations, California fuel taxes, etc., etc., etc., and it’s the worst possible economic atmosphere.
Maybe if you wrote it in Spanish....
LOL! Si se puede!
It's not even that bad. 20,000 were given warnings, as required by law. No layoffs can take place for 120 days thereafter. Arnold has publicly said it is his goal to layoff on 10,000 and ONLY IF he can't get his big budget passed.
The NYT is just helping spread the Armageddon propaganda. No surprise.
Trust me, Julia Roberts and Sean Penn do as much to protect their earnings as anyone, probably more.
The same people who hug Hugo Chavez and protest guns have armed guards...
There ya go. The NYT is doing its job as per usual. Thank you for the info; I was halfway informed myself.
My question about the unions keeping mum in CA still stands, though. They were screeching bloody murder during the last $19.20/hr-isn’t-enough-for-grocery-checkers strike, but they’re nowhere to be seen now?
The feds will bail out california. We are putting the entire planet in debt due to democrat banking queen policies. It won’t take long before someone somewhere figures out that it would be smarter to nuke us than buy our bonds....
Marijuana is about the only thing in Cali right now that’s making any money, and that’s illegal. Oh well commie Cali, now you’re screwed.
It is too late, you know. Like waiting until the venome from the snake has fully metastized, and the putting the turnequette around the patient’s kneck, to save the brain.
CA is done. Toast. Cooked.
As of 1 FEB, they defaulted on debt - paying IOU’s, instead of cash. And that was after taking out illegal bonds they cannot cover.
They could fire the entire government today, and they are still toast.
Thank God for the 2/3s supermajority, it’s all we have! Nice Patton reference ;)
Stupid is as stupid does...
The majority in this state are stupid on steroids...
I think the SEIU cut a deal and are not subject to layoff. If you google it, you can confirm in detail what I only remember vaguely.
The teachers unions also seem to have cut a deal. My guess is they are remaining quiet so no one looks behind the curtain. Apparently they will take a “big cut” in the near term, but all those dollars will be paid back in the following year. (Probably with interest, LOL). Just another bogus “cut” to make us believe how “reasonable” the massive tax increases are.
Doncha love the budget game? LOL
P.S. The Senate just reconvened 10 minutes ago. Steinberg is whining and whining about those evil Republicans not doing the people’s business. A real gagger.
Yeah, next time I am dead broke and facing bankruptcy, I am going to go out and max out my remaining credit to buy a toy choo-choo....
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