Tomorrow's Wall Street Journal reports:
The stumbling U.S. economy is forcing states to slash spending and cut jobs in order to close a projected $40 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year.That gap -- identified Wednesday in a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures -- is more than triple the size of the previous year's. It is the result of broad economic weakness at the state and local levels that could cause pain throughout this year and into 2010. Sales-tax collections, for example, have been hurt by the housing slump and high gasoline prices, which are prompting cutbacks in consumer spending. Personal income-tax collections have been hit by rising unemployment, while corporate income-tax collections have been eroded by falling profits.
"We expect it to get worse before it gets better," said Corina Eckl, fiscal-program director of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Not to worry here at home. Governor Christine Gregoire and her staff continue to ignore the $2.7 billion deficit projections of the Senate Ways & Means Committee staff. Months have passed since the Governor's own Office of Financial Management released numbers to guide planning by the Governor's office.
Actually, come to think of it, they might not need the numbers since Gregoire isn't worrying about it for now:
She said her own budget office, the Office of Financial Management, hasn't done its own analysis and that she'll wait for the one it'll produce later this year (after the election) that she'll write her budget proposal off of. [Ed. note: "after the election," that's convenient.]"That's the one that really counts," Gregoire said.
She generally dismissed such talk of budget deficits, repeated what she's said before about deficit projections being merely projections and about the national economy dragging down Washington while expressing confidence in the state's economy.
"Now is not the time to panic," Gregoire said.
Maybe not panic, but public acknowledgment of reality and some actual planning by the state's chief executive to deal with a potentially massive budget shortfall sure sounds prudent.
Cross-posted at the Examiner.
Posted by Eric Earling at July 23, 2008 09:34 PM | Email Thissaid the spartan to the oar drummer: "...timekeeper--increase the beats!!..."
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on July 23, 2008 10:14 PMBush is national executive, but yeah, it would be nice if he'd ever submitted a balanced budget. (Then again, why should he differ from any other Republican President of the last forty years?)
You can tell me the local Democrats are paying you now. Really, you can.
Posted by: tensor on July 23, 2008 11:14 PMIsn't this the equivelent of declaring "Quick, close the barn door!!" after the livestock have long since departed the structure?
She is right in saying 'now is not the time to panic' though. That has long since passed with a 2.7B deficit accumulated during her short reign. The panic has been supplanted with anger which I plan to carry to the ballot box in November and help bounce her sorry carcass from her Olympia throne.
God save the Queen, but to hell with Christine!
Housing Bill Hammers Taxpayers
July 24, 2008; Page A14
Combine a housing meltdown with election-year politics and the results were not going to be pretty. Add a crisis in confidence in Washington's favorite quasipublic companies and what we're getting is a rout for taxpayers, especially those who kept their heads during the housing mania.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121685588403379069.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
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Posted by: JDH on July 24, 2008 07:40 AMShe may cut forces or redirect traffic from the most vital services and leave the exotic programs. That way, in her mind, she can claim poverty and support the need to fund the traditional and essential government services. She won't even try to cut the exotics.
I hope the voters start seeing through this dense cloud. Alas, there is a new cloud of BS floating through the skies- the Dalai Bama.
Posted by: swatter on July 24, 2008 07:45 AMShe should know that there are many small business people & retired folks who will pull up stakes & leave if that should happen. There might even be a large company or two that would leave under those circumstances.
The only reason that many people & companies remain in the socialist republic of Washington is due to the lack of an income tax.
Posted by: Clean House on July 24, 2008 01:06 PMThey will then be ready to uphold the CAO, stealing your property, again a 5-4 decision.
I don't know if any of those liberal judges are running this time, but it is time to throw their asses to the wind.
Gregoire will not show any budget, nor even have her so called finance generals determine the defecit or general budget, unless she wins in November.
Then the wheels will come off in her next legislative session, and hang on to your pocket books, at a time when we can least afford it, we will get nailed to the wall in the next session.
That is so they will hop you will forget by the next session.
with 7000 new state employees, and another 7000 new if she wins again, we will be in one hell of a mess 4 years from now.
Bow down to the queen, she is coming and coming fast to the wallet and bank account near you. Her spending spree has been continuous and large at 8 Billion more in these 4 years than the last, but be assured it wil only get wilder in the next years.
Posted by: gs on July 24, 2008 04:13 PMAbout $140 per year per person and you won't see a damn thing until 15 times that $140 per person or $2100 per person.
Coming to a Ballot near you soon!
Vote Hell No!
Posted by: gs on July 24, 2008 06:51 PMBobmike
Posted by: Bobmike on July 25, 2008 10:42 PMIt is a simple case of government engaging in the wholesale printing of currency - and those involved trading in the currency markets have acknowledged as much.
This money was borrowed and placed into circulation without regard to the impact on the value of the dollar. The sad part is the common garden variety knot-head cannot equate part of the increase in the price of such imported goods as crude oil is in response to the dollars it is being purchased with being worth less.
So when John Q Knot-head turns back flips over his economic stimulus check he doesn't factor in that the impact of this money give away on retail prices and doesn't realize that there is a reason I have always said "if it's free, I cannot afford it" because there is always a catch involved and history has proven to me that the catch outweighs the free every time.
But then I do tend to favor looking at most offers using a long time horizon and using the catch as it relates to the value of the free offer as the deciding factor when evaluating these types of things.
Posted by: JDH on July 26, 2008 07:55 PM