States Scramble To Cover Expenses

Some news items that show how city’s and states are struggling with their defects, note the amounts of money here, we will see more city’s slash budgets reduce services and come after more of your money in tax dollars. The first is a Fed reserve official saying that we cannot continue to print money as we have our debts now exceed the GNP for the average year, the consequence of this will be massive inflation unemployment and the virtual destruction of the middle class. We have still not learned any lessons from this we continue as a country to write checks we cannot cash. The news you hear of low inflation, the drop in jobless claims and a decrease in unemployment is complete fiction, Washington has made an art out of feeding misinformation to the American public. The saying goes to be forewarned is to be forearmed listen , hear, watch, observe, prepare, make what preparations’ you can for the coming hardship we all face. Good luck.

Govts Need Fiscal Stimulus Exit Plan

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Calling government budget deficits unsustainable, a top Federal Reserve official on Thursday called on national leaders to start laying out plans that would allow a move back to more manageable spending levels.
"Just as there needs to be a credible exit strategy for monetary policy to anchor inflation expectations, there also needs to be a credible exit strategy from fiscal policy stimulus to anchor expectations about the risks of sovereign debt default," Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said Thursday.

California:


The first attempt at solving some of California's $20 billion budget deficit ended far short of the goal Thursday, as the Legislature adjourned its special session on midyear cuts to the state budget.

Illinois : Budget Woes Have Schools Expecting the Worst

In Elgin on Monday night, it is not going to matter who is bluffing, winning or losing in the heated debate under way in Springfield over the state’s gargantuan budget hole.

The legislature may argue for months over Gov. Patrick J. Quinn’s proposed $1.3 billion in education cuts and his plan to raise state income taxes, or they may ignore it. But school officials cannot wait.


New York: A Way to Bail Out New York

New York State is facing a $9 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year — a calamitous shortfall that is likely to get worse before it gets better. The state’s credit rating is at risk, and painful budget cuts are inevitable.


New Jersey:

Chris Christie on N.J.’s budget crisis

GOVERNOR CHRISTIE: It's going to be painful, Pat, it really is. We have an inherited an 11.2 billion dollar budget deficit for next fiscal year. We'll be addressing that budget deficit in my speech on Tuesday and I will tell you it's going to be painful for all New Jerseyans. But I know that if we dig in and we fix our problems honestly now that we'll be in a position for economic growth as the economy recovers.



Hawaii's budget outlook gets slightly worse

HONOLULU -- Hawaii's projected budget deficit grew by about $50 million Thursday, a relatively small bump based on signs that the economy is stabilizing.

The state Council on Revenues, which predicts how the economy will influence tax collections, left its forecast unchanged for the current fiscal year ending in June, but it toned down its prior optimism about next fiscal year.



Maryland

The highwaymen from Annapolis

With state lawmakers clamoring to find ways to reduce spending, it’s not surprising that Baltimore’s share of transportation aid has drawn attention like hungry lions eyeing a wounded zebra. But a proposal to cut $30 million in city aid, not to help balance the state budget but to enrich more affluent jurisdictions, demonstrates how nature’s carnivores have nothing on the predators in Annapolis.

Such blatant theft would surely make the Sheriff of Nottingham proud. Taking so-called Highway Users Revenue from Baltimore and giving it to the counties is nothing short of stealing from the poor to benefit the rich. With a potential $2 billion deficit looming next year, state spending needs to be cut, but that doesn’t mean legislators should be harder on the city than local governments with fiscal problems nowhere near so dire.