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U.S. states suffer "unbelievable" revenue shortages
Reuters ^ | 10/09/09 | Lisa Lambert

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; economy; financialcrisis; greatdepression2009; obama; revenue; state; taxes
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To: FormerACLUmember

Chart is correct, except that the Equilibrium point is well below the 50% tax rate.

61 posted on 10/11/2009 6:48:57 AM PDT by meyer ("I went to Europe to buy the Olympics for Chicago and all I got was this silly Nobel")
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To: TigerLikesRooster
Many went heavily into derivatives, too.

Orange county taught them nothing.

62 posted on 10/11/2009 6:51:30 AM PDT by Roccus (My anger is manufactured.......................................in the WHITE HOUSE and CONGRESS!!)
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To: newnhdad
Should read “State governments overspending beyond their capacity to borrow, look to the federal govt for help.

Yup. And on top of that, laws passed in Washington require the states to spend on certain things. For example, the health care bill will require the states to spend even more on Medicaid-money the states don't have.

63 posted on 10/11/2009 6:56:22 AM PDT by libertylover (The problem with Obama is not that his skin is too black, it's that his ideas are too RED.)
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To: FormerACLUmember
not teacher
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That is the first thing that should be cut!

Give every family and business a tax credit for any money donated to **private** education tuition. Then over the next 10 years gradually demand that parents pay the full cost of educating their own children.

At least 60% of our property tax goes to support government Marxist indoctrination ( mis-named “public schools”). Then there are the state and federal taxes that go to these Marxist government indoctrination centers as well.

Also...In my state government Marxist indoctrination accounting practices would make an Enron accountant blush! For instance, the government Marxist indoctrination centers use many county services that never appear in the school budget. And...In my state, retired teachers are considered merely “retired state workers” and their retirement expenses are **never** shown as a school indoctrination expense.

By the way, our county just build a 70 MILLION dollar Marxist indoctrination center! It is the most expensive Marxist indoctrination center ever built in the history of the state!

64 posted on 10/11/2009 6:59:39 AM PDT by wintertime (People are not stupid! Good ideas win!)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

The United States is recovering but the states aren’t, hmmm, that makes sense how?


65 posted on 10/11/2009 7:06:54 AM PDT by tiki (True Christians will not deliberately slander or misrepresent others or their beliefs)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
For other states revenues are not only coming in below forecast, but have fallen steeply from the year ago period, when revenues were already depressed by the recession -- a sign of further fiscal distress for many states.

I love this kind of "analysis." The dropping revenue means "distressed" states, but not a distressed economy (or citizens, for that matter).

I have yet to figure out how "things are getting better", but personal and business income tax revenues are dropping, sales tax revenues are dropping, capital gains tax revenues are dropping...

At some point wouldn't you think the dropping revenue means dropping business/economic conditions?

hh
66 posted on 10/11/2009 7:17:55 AM PDT by hoosier hick (Note to RINOs: We need a choice, not an echo....Barry Goldwater)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

re: Most states had been pessimistic in forecasting their tax revenues for the 2010 fiscal year

BS, I might be wrong but I don’t think a single state moved to spend less in real terms than the year before. If they would start by controlling the growth in their obscene budgets and then work to gradually increase the decrease it would be possible. But as long as they insist on spending money they KNOW won’t be there and then following through by making cuts in the most visible and necessary programs nothing is going to change.

Even the states are prohibited from having a deficit get around it by overstating projected revenue. Then the inevitable happens and the weeping and wailing and cutting cops and libraries starts.

So predictable, and at every level from dog catcher to POTUS.


67 posted on 10/11/2009 7:23:10 AM PDT by jwparkerjr (God Bless America, and wake us up while you're about it!)
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To: DH

Reminds me of a joke going around some 30 years ago here in Florida when the State Department of Transportation trucks were painted yellow and black.

Q: What yellow and black and sleeps six?

A: DOT truck!


68 posted on 10/11/2009 7:26:02 AM PDT by jwparkerjr (God Bless America, and wake us up while you're about it!)
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To: cripplecreek

“The big reason revenues are tanking is that consumers are negative and they’re saving their money,”

hmmm....What kind of economy is based on “sin tax” revenue in the first place? (!!)

I’ve heard people defending GH, saying it’s not her fault. George Bush’s fault, I guess. I hope MI voters are finally getting a clue.


69 posted on 10/11/2009 7:26:34 AM PDT by ElayneJ
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To: TigerLikesRooster

We are only at the beginning of this mess.


70 posted on 10/11/2009 7:27:02 AM PDT by Sprite518
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To: TigerLikesRooster
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.

People who keep touting that we're in a "recovery" need to be committed to an asylum for long term observation.

There is NO recovery while the economy continues to lose jobs and NO prospect for an economy to improve until growth is anticipated (...not happening...anticipated!) and hiring begins.

Anyone suggesting otherwise is a leftist sympathizer and should be grouped right along with the rest of this nation's enemies, like congress.

71 posted on 10/11/2009 7:27:43 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

States will need to make sharp cutbacks on welfare. It will be the only way out for them.


72 posted on 10/11/2009 7:29:27 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: ElayneJ

The problem is that the voters who blame George Bush are the people we see lining up in Detroit for “free” money. Otherwise Michigan is a pretty conservative state outside the urban centers and college towns.

It wouldn’t take much to tip us back into the red state category like Reagan did.


73 posted on 10/11/2009 7:30:54 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
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To: Sprite518

re: We are only at the beginning of this mess

They don’t see that, do they? Or is it that they see it but are lying through their teeth about it? They are doing absolutely NOTHING to improve the underlying causes of our economic woes. Borrowing more money to solve the problem of borrowing too much in the first place is not a solution.

Nothing they are doing or talking about doing is aimed at getting to the source of our problems.


74 posted on 10/11/2009 7:34:24 AM PDT by jwparkerjr (God Bless America, and wake us up while you're about it!)
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To: rbg81

States grew to the total capicity of the real estate bubble’s debt, tax and spending. That was a mistake. Now they have to cut back all their “progress” (growth and expansion of state power) that was not progress to begin with. The Federal government is going to be facing the same crisis soon. Obama and the socialists have gone way too far and severe cutting of whole Federal operations is going to have to come about.


75 posted on 10/11/2009 7:38:50 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: 9YearLurker
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.

EXACTLY...

76 posted on 10/11/2009 7:39:30 AM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (Arjuna, why have you have dropped your bow???)
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To: cripplecreek
Did you hear any of the sound bites this week where they were talking to some of those lined up to get the money? Very revealing. Asked where the money was coming from they answered OBAMA. Asked where they thought he got the money they responded ‘the stimulus’. Asked where that money came from was greeted with silence or hemming and hawing.

We are in deep doo-doo and if we don't move quickly and decisively to work on curing, not palliating the situation we're out of luck.

I would love to see a really objective worksheet that would let a person, or family, fill in the blanks about the taxes they pay and the benefits they receive and then give a final total as to how much of a producer or moocher they are. That would be very interesting!

In today's world a lot of us would be moochers, but not by choice rather because we've lost our job or haven’t been able to keep up with life. OTOH, there will be moochers who make absolutely NO contribution to the running of things but take and take and take.

77 posted on 10/11/2009 7:41:26 AM PDT by jwparkerjr (God Bless America, and wake us up while you're about it!)
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To: FormerACLUmember

The left cuts meat to save fat.


78 posted on 10/11/2009 7:45:52 AM PDT by Mojave (Don't blame me. I voted for McClintock.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
Lower tax revenues could lead to higher taxes or another sharp reduction in services

Unchecked increases in so-called "services" is what got states into this mess to begin with. They never saw a program they didn't like, unless maybe it had something to do with actually reducing expenditures.

79 posted on 10/11/2009 7:47:50 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: jwparkerjr
"Did you hear any of the sound bites this week where they were talking to some of those lined up to get the money? Very revealing. Asked where the money was coming from they answered OBAMA. Asked where they thought he got the money they responded ‘the stimulus’. Asked where that money came from was greeted with silence or hemming and hawing."

Unfortunately it's not just the moochers in the Detroit money line. I'm dismayed at the ignorance of many so-called educated adults I meet. They don't seem to understand the most basic issues of supply/demand or that government doesn't have money apart from that which is taken from a producing citizen (leaving aside the hot printing presses for a moment . . . ). It's as though government money grows on money trees and we can reduce the price of something we don't want to pay for by government edict. Very frustrating.

80 posted on 10/11/2009 7:53:25 AM PDT by Think free or die (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money - M.Thatcher)
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