States Going Belly Up Part 11 - Running Out of Gas

California swirls the drain some more –

City officials in Half Moon Bay say the municipal budget is such a mess that it may make sense to disincorporate and turn the place over to San Mateo County.

And the myopic Unionists lead the way -

A side note: unions have revived legislation in Sacramento that seeks to prevent cash-strapped cities from declaring bankruptcy (Municipalities would have to get permission from a labor-dominated commission first). The consequence of that legislation, were it to pass, might well be to promote more disincorporations -- that is, the shutting down of cities -- since bankruptcy would be all but off the table.

Perhaps they should start charging fees for people to exercise their rights, oh wait...

NY –

...desperate for cash, Albany began enforcing a little known clause in its sales tax code that calls for a tax on sliced bagels or whole bagels consumed at the place of purchase, according to The Wall Street Journal.

When an audit found New York chain Bruegger's Bagel in violation of this often unenforced clause, the state demanded owner Kenneth Greene cough up a "significant" amount in taxes to cover what the state figured he owed, according to the Journal.

Florida -

The city of Miami is so broke it's forcing employees to take pay cuts, even though they're under contract. Mayor Tomas Regalado said he's never seen a financial mess like this before, and his options are grim.

“It's either that or we layoff 1,000 employees or we raise taxes to the max, and we're not raising taxes to the max,” the mayor said.

The Real Effect
You can kick, you can scream, but you can't drain blood from a stone and if you kill the golden goose, soon you will be out of eggs. Just where do these people think this money is going to come from? Our cutting edge High School science washouts? The Public Unions are shooting themselves in the head here as they flat out refuse to see the camel in the tent here. The public is in a depression, they make half the money you do and do far more work in far less time. Protectionist strategies only delay the inevitable and make the fall that much worse.

The public may be a tad slow, but they're getting out of 401k Dodge while they can and everyone is starting to notice that everyone else is heading for the exits. The only thing left is the panic as everyone realizes everybody has aces up their sleeve.