States Going Belly Up Part 4

Georgia -

With the Georgia House of Representatives passing a revised 2009-2010 budget and the Senate now working up its own amended version of the current budget, local lawmakers say the financial health of the state is a major concern, and next year’s budget will likely require an additional $1.5 billion in cuts.

Last Thursday, the Georgia House passed an amended version of the 2010 budget to account for decreases in revenue since the budget was finalized last spring, with cuts this time around coming at $1.15 billion. Members voted 122-44 in favor of the new version of the budget, which included a mandate that teachers and other state employees take three furlough days by June 30 in addition to the furlough days already taken.

On his Web site, Rep. Dubose Porter, D-Dublin, who is the Democratic leader in the House, condemned the House’s budget, saying it hurts the state’s already underachieving public education system. He predicted it would result in increased property taxes.

Yes because cutting spending usually means taxes go up. What kind of dystopian nightmare do we live in? I understand that the cuts might mean a "tweak" to the "formulas" that might result in more cash coming from the property tax bucket, but what the Rep. have the good citizens of Georgia do? Nothing!? Let's just keep spending until we all die?!

Illinois -

A highly unusual closed-door meeting of the state Senate lasted about an hour and a half today, and participants said many of the chamber's 59 Democrats and Republicans attended to hear a presentation on budgeting and the economy from national experts.

Lawmakers barred reporters from the meeting, saying it was a joint gathering of the Democratic and Republican caucuses that was not required to be public under the state Constitution or open meetings law.

and Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Rhode Island -

Illinois ranks 50th among the states in setting aside the tens of billions of dollars needed to pay its employee pensions.
The report by the Pew Center on the States, a Washington research group, concludes that Illinois has set aside barely half -- 54%, to be exact -- of the amount it will need to pay benefits in its five worker pension funds, leaving an unfunded liability of $54.4 billion.

That 54% easily is the worst of any state in the union. Only Kansas, at 59%, and Oklahoma and Rhode Island, at 61% each, come anywhere close.

Washington -

The state's economic picture is stabilizing but still precarious, and employment levels likely won't rebound until the second half of 2010, economist Arun Raha said Friday.

Raha told the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council that the state's deficit now sits at about $2.8 billion, with a recent $100 million uptick in demand for state services and a $154 million hit from a court case.
Without the court case, which cost the state revenue from certain out-of-state companies operating in Washington, the state would have seen positive revenue growth -- about $32 million -- for the first time in two years.

"The Great Recession may be over, but it has wrought havoc in our economy which will take time to heal," Raha said.

Wooo...we really dodged a bullet there. It's a great thing that the STATE'S revenue is up. No one has a job, but at least bourgeoisie are intact!

Even Texas is going after old parking tickets. But just how do these statists feel about these sort of things?

Albany Police Officers Union President Chris Mesley says that, regardless of the faltering economy, a no-raise new contract is unacceptable.

And to hell with the public.

“I’m not running a popularity contest here,” Mesley said. “If I’m the bad guy to the average citizen . . . and their taxes have go up to cover my raise, I’m very sorry about that, but I have to look out for myself and my membership.“

And police wonder why they are becoming targets much less not respected in their communities? Little word of warning police, when they take your lawfully protected pensions and you see fit to caterwaul about it, you won't be getting any sympathy from John Q. Public seeing as how you were complicit in this whole mess. I myself got endure such antics at the hands of blustery mob of angry public school nazis.