The 10 States With The Worst Budget Shortfalls

ABC News:

The economic problems of American families are now pounding many state governments which are in turn slashing services to balance their budgets in one of the most difficult years in decades.

Read the whole story: ABC News

Comments

[iblogleft]

It is no more reasonable to expect California to have a year to year balanced budget, than any of the other top 10 economies in the world.

[vippy]

Any dummy can think of a tax increase. We elect our officials so they divert a crisis, not act AFTER a
crisis. And Schwarzenegger failed to address the problems, fire him and do so with everyone who never balanced a budget. That is what budgets are made, we all have to live by it.

[undecidedaboutPOTUS]

"Quinn, who replaced ousted governor Rod Blagojevich only six months ago, has stated he will veto any other budget proposal that does not call for a tax increase."

Great, this Gov will veto if the budget doesn’t have a tax increase, and in California the gov will veto the budget if it DOES have a tax increase? Seems like a WTF moment.

Baseball teams trade players from time to time: can we please trade Governor Schwarzenegger for Governor Quinn?? might not be a win-win for both states -- but it would be a win for us in Calif.

[Craig Bowers]

Wait, Michigan isn't on here?

Wow! I am pleasantly surprised. I mean, wasn't it just last year that our government technically shut down for a few minutes?

[antifluff]

Nine out of eleven states in the article did vote democrat (their platform:takeitfromsomeoneelseand giveittoyourvoters). Only two of the states voted more than 70% repub. The country is in bad shape and it will only get worseif the failedpolicies oftaxandspendmore arecontinued. Itwaswrong duringthelastadministrationand itisn'tany better during thisadministration

[Deli]

They had this solved in a California in a bipartisan way. The gov refused to accept an excellent compromise and did not care a bit that he added $7B overnight with his bullheadedness. He is doing this for one reason. He sees it as the perfect hostage situation to push extreme Republican "small government" goals while wiping out social services. If things were as bad as he says, and they are now, thanks to him, some level of tax increase to avoid complete social breakdown would have to be part of the solution.

[grateful4thedead]

The New York legislature is STILL the biggest pile of recycled dog food in the USA.

California has nothing on New York.

[DontJustFollow]

All those deals Davis and Willy Brown cut to get power are coming back to haunt us - - - I guess we can finally answer the question "how many illegals and government employees does it take to bankrupt the 5th largest economy in the world?"

Maybe we can blame it on the low taxes???


will the last employer leaving for Nevada or the south please turn out the lights ?

[MBAdaycamp]

The era of low taxes with lots of service and generous retirement benefits are over.

We have to make tradeoffs (pay for the services we consume) or cut services.




http://itunes.com/apps/mba101
www.mbadaycamp.com

[RobinLandseadel]

This is what happens when your Governor can't even say the word "California".

[econ1]

Here in CA our tax receipts increased 167% from fy 90-91 to fy 06-07, but spending increased 189%. Then the economy took a turn for the worse.

We have a woman with six kids, paid for by the state, getting fertility treatment (paid for by the state) and having 8 more kids....you guessed it, paid for by the state.

State employees can retire on pensions after 30 years at 50 years old, with expected life expectancies it is like doubling the pay. All of which is not reflected in the current budget issue.

No one should be surprised that this ponzi scheme has ended.

[RTKfellow]

Living in California, I've been watching the mess that's going on and the massive debates around it. But in all honesty, the biggest contributor to a lack of budget is the super-majority rule (think filibuster) for budgets. The Dems outnumbers the Repubs, but not enough to break the impass. Dems want more taxes to fill in some of the budget holes. Repubs are digging in on cutting the budget despite how hard it will hit education and other services. Schwarzenegger is vetoing what doesn't meet his approval. Voters shot down all propositions geared toward addressing the budget.

End result? Complete gridlock. This is a mess we all created. We want services but we're not willing to pay for it. We accuse the government of playing to special interests simply because they're spending money on things WE don't find important (but which actually may be important). And every day it's get worse because of the IOUs and penalties. I'd vote to remove all our current lawmakers out of office, but I don't think it would solve the problem. The people of California have screwed this up together, and until we wake up, sit down, shut up, and work out compromises to get things running again, we'll be sinking. But do you want to bet that'll happen anytime soon?

Personally, I'm investing in life jackets.

[DontJustFollow]

no kidding - what we need here in California is higher taxes. I pay sales tax of 9.75 and my state income tax is quickly approaching 11% - the fee's for everything are going through the roof.

the top 1% pays over half the taxes and the bottom 50% (the ones that use the most state gov. resources) pay about 1% of the taxes.

Now you know why the democrats will never let a flat tax pass - - -

[joecoolconservative]

It's time to move out of CA to greener pastures and low taxes.

[HST]

California needs to recall the ultimatium-giving governator.

[Jason Osborne]

Hmmm...interesting. Blue states make up most of the top 10...could it be it's because they're in the RED to the Federal Gov't? See - most Blue states get back less tax dollars from the Feds than they pay in - $.75 on the $1. But RED states - heck - as much as they HATE the Feds - they sure like to take those tax dollars...I say we go tax neutral - - - then we'll see how those proud Red states react...

[polybius]

Ya, I love states like Montana, Wyoming, Dakotas etc talking about "big government" HA

Montana has 4-lane interstate highway through it and the 5 ppl / yr that use it. WHO do you think pays to maintain and keep this monster plowed 8 months of the year?? Yup, the Federal government.

LOL, hypocrisy is a red state thang

[AmericanPlea]

The federal government pays 90% of all the cost across the nation as a result of 1944 bill not having a program to pay for it. Its not red or blue.

[mzonic]

zomg did they issue IOUs to make that sign?

[Deli]

Great question! This guy is only frugal when it comes to things other than benefits to the rich.