Posted on 10/11/2009 5:53:24 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. states suffer "unbelievable" revenue shortages
By Lisa Lambert
Fri Oct 9, 5:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy may be creeping toward recovery after the worst slowdown since the Great Depression, but many states see no end in sight to their diving tax revenues.
Tax revenues used to pay teachers and fuel police cars continue to trail even the most pessimistic expectations, despite the cash from the economic stimulus plan pouring into state coffers.
"It's crazy. It's really just unbelievable," said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, and called the states' revenue situations "close to unprecedented."
Most states had been pessimistic in forecasting their tax revenues for the 2010 fiscal year, Pattison said. So far, collections have fallen below even those low targets.
Lower tax revenues could lead to higher taxes or another sharp reduction in services if receipts do not show signs of improvement before year-end, as every state but
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ping!
its totally believable and predictable. It will fall even further
Jenny Granholm said we had a “breathtaking” tobacco and lottery revenue decline several months ago. Obviously the only solution is to raise taxes some more. LOL
“It’s crazy. It’s really just unbelievable...”
No, it’s not. It’s by DESIGN, you moron. (Scott, not you TLR!)
They wrote this article as if it was bad news that government is being starved down...
“The act also created a state fiscal stabilization fund and dedicated money to education.”
*SIGH* Yes, we need our kids to be educated...there is going to be an amazing shortage of workers that can read and write and do math in the near future.
What we DON’T need is Government setting aside our tax dollars for more teacher perks...when most of the kids are falling through the cracks as it is!
And until the states, counties, cities and towns are forced to curb their unsupportable pensions and staffing levels for their employees, revenue needs to drop still further. That’s where the the killer fat in our economy, but instead we’re starving productive private businesses.
*the killer fat is in our economy*
Should read “State governments overspending beyond their capacity to borrow, look to the federal govt for help”..
They don’t have a problem talking about revenue shortfalls, but the outrageous government spending that makes shortfalls a problem doesn’t seem to get much space over at Reuters. I wonder why that is?
And yet all states have tons of money for welfare programs.
What is keeping a lot of states afloat right now is the Stimulus money. Without that, there would be massive layoffs at the state level, in addition to, the secondary effects of those layoffs. However, the money will run out in 2010. That is why, I think, they’ll be forced to do Stimulus II. Many, if not most, of these state jobs are union jobs—the Dems will not allow massive union layoffs. The result will be more debt, more printing of $$, a devalued dollar, and (eventually) hyper-inflation.
In short, we are just pushing our problems off to the future, but increasing their effect with every delay. Our politicians are hell-bent on keeping Americans from feeling any pain whatsoever. When the pain finally comes, instead of a headache, we will get a massive brain embolism.
Government finally joining the ranks of those who starve while being forced to feed it?
The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy--If We Let It Happen, by Laffer, Moore, and Tanous.
See the chapter entiled "Bankruptcy 90210".
Our town is actually doing something about falling revenues. They now only have 6 people fixing a single pothole instead of the regular 7.
The States must do something to get the Federal Govt. out of their business.
They spent like drunken sailors as the housing bubble pushed property taxes ever higher. Now comes the reckoning.
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