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 ...
“It wouldn’t take much to tip us back into the red state category like Reagan did.”
I hope you’re right. I’m in the most conservative section of the state, and it’s been turning bluer over the few years. I hope the tide is turning back now.
I don’t know the specifics but I do know that today’s public schools teach next to nothing about economics. And they do teach is Left, Left, Left.
I am honestly at a loss to decide if the dumbing down of America has been the result of a conspiracy or just the natural result of unions and Leftists taking over education. I guess it could be both. Someone is pulling the strings and taking advantage of the fact that unions and the Left lean toward the beliefs of those who would take us down.
Ain’t commin’ back until bureaucratic government adapts itself from the 19th to the 21st century.
There is nothing like a real book when a child is snuggled in your lap or sitting close for an evening bedtime story.
But...
Why are they free? Charge a yearly subscription with vouchers for the poor.
When my kids were young we used the library, at minimum, on a weekly basis, and it seemed to me that those parents using the library could have easily afforded to **pay** for the service. Generally, few poor families ever used it.
This is a problem folks....up until the last 80years or so...the Feds had to beg from the states...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-04-fed-states-revenue_N.htm
The wheels fall off the bus when the bond market refuses to continue this.
Wis is raisng state, local and any other tax the Governor can imagine. Long time Wis businesses are leaving by the bucket load - even losing business to Michigan...
Wis is 48th on list of busness-friendly states and trying out for 50th (or is that 57th).
OMG! Seven is all? We use 8 in Wis - going to 10 under the new Doyle budget.
The “sin tax” declines are due partially to a bad economy for the blue collar workers who pay most of them, and partially to tax avoidance (by buying out of state or over the internet).
The Laffer curve works for sale taxes as well—and in this economic environment most states are on the wrong side of it.
That state officials are “stunned” by such developments indicates either incredible stupidity or they are lying through their teeth—but probably both. :-(
Our elected thieves spend the tax payers money like there is no tomorrow, it’s a bottomless pit to them.
When times get tough, the tax payers are told that they need to cut back and stop wasting money they don’t have.
When times get tough for the ones who spend money from this bottomless pit, from the tax payers who are told they need to cut back, they have a simple answer raise taxes to support their reckless spending and outrages perks.
Our 16 year old is studying calculus and physics on nearly the same level as I studied as a college freshman. I don't see lefty politics intruding here at all. Things are a bit less rosy when we move away from the math and physical science curricula. The Honors World Lit course our older son is taking recently sent him home with instructions on interpreting a reading through the lenses of Freudian, Feminist and Marxist philosophy. I found this a bit limited, and the instructions were written in especially poor quality gobbledygook. If it's one assignment, I can live with it, but our son tells us the teacher is a real lefty feminist, so there is likely more to come. His Honors History text is pretty comprehensive, and not excessively politically correct by today's standards.
Over the years, it has seemed to me that the leftward tilt in our local educational community is not so much in the curriculum (except for global warming crap in the science classroom) as it is in the community itself. We see a lot of soft-headed mush in the PTO and in choices of charities to support. Individual teachers can inflict political correctness in the classroom without it appearing in the textbooks. Our younger son knows which of his teachers and classmates are generally more right leaning and knows when to speak judiciously lest he jeopardize his grades. It's an interesting process.
I have a measure of optimism about one aspect of normal development. Young people tend to rebel against heavy handed indoctrination by their elders. The baby boomer generation has imposed some very heavy indoctrination on these kids, and I believe eventually they will generate a backlash. As young people graduate into an economy which can't provide them with meaningful jobs, this may accelerate.
We already pay for the service through taxes, and I'd oppose any efforts to charge even more if that were proposed in our community. We use the library a lot. It's a terrific resource for books, movies, books on tape, etc. We have an extensive on-line inventory which gives us access to the entire county's resources. The library is also across the street from the high school, so students can readily go there after school to access the internet and work on research projects. I wouldn't want to discourage that process in any way.
I believe some are doing it intentionally, and others are just stupid lemmings. There’s a lot of group think going on, and I find it disturbing how unwilling people are to think for themselves, let alone speak out.
Would you still feel the same way if your taxes were reduced by the amount that it costs to run the library?
I understand your reasoning. But...When so-called “free” socialist programs are introduced into a community, it is reasoning like this that perpetuates the socialist program indefinitely.
That would be AWESOME. Us home schoolers are paying not only 100% for our own children's education, but I pay 75% of my property tax to the school system.
“When will they understand that this all started mid 2008, the moment we all saw The Big O nominated and that he might win.”
Not true. The excessive debt buildup by the average Joe over the past 20 years created the bubbles that popped. The banks wanted us to spend, last year, all the money we would make in our lifetime. That was a worldwide policy.
I am dirt poor and would receive offers of low mortgage rates and credit cards. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to pay them off at once, and being able to add and subtract, I didn’t get involved.
Today, I am still living on nothing, but the inflation is really making it tough.
The Dems non-economic policies will not get any kind of recovery going, but even with no-tax Republicans in charge, if the banks are not controlled, ESPECIALLY THE FED, then there will be no prosperity.
Come to think of it, our recent past prosperity was built on what?
Logically, if the budgets decrease to say a 1980’s level, then the budgets and all salaries and all benefits and all social programs, should go back to the 1980’s level. Too bad it won’t happen.
I could buy more on minimum wage in 1973 than I can today on $8/hour. Greed, pure unadulterated greed. Oh, well, nothing is new under the sun, eh?
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.
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Yet,...In post #92 you reflect the very thinking you are lamenting.
On average, the American woman had 2.1 children, or 1.05 children per adult.
So...I have an idea!
Any citizen that pays for the private education of 1.5 children should be given a **permanent** reprieve from any further school taxes for the rest of his life!
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