"States fear flawed revenue forecasts" by Associated Press | July 6, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - With its IOUs and plans to close state offices three days a month, California gets all the attention as lawmakers fight to write a budget set off-balance by a $26.3 billion deficit.
But the dozens of other states that made spending cuts, tapped into reserves, or relied on federal stimulus funds to patch together budgets that took effect this past week are hardly free from worry.
"So, no real stimulus, just the bill for one." -- Wake the Flock Up
Many of those spending plans are based on tax revenue projections that have been wrong throughout the recession - and may be unreliable again.
Gee that word sure is COMING UP A LOT in these STATE TAX POSTS!
More miscalculations could bring a variety of consequences: deeper cuts to services such as healthcare and education; layoffs and furloughs of state employees; and renewed consideration of tax and fee increases....
Sure that isn't the PLAN?!!!
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Of course, Massachushitts is a NATIONAL LEADER when it comes to BEING WRONG!
"Mass. revenues plummet again; Fiscal year ends with $180m gap; Officials warily eye dwindling reserves" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | July 8, 2009
State revenues took yet another plunge last month, ending the financial year $180 million below even the dourest projections and forcing leaders to choose between draining the state’s reserve account and making further cuts in a budget approved just last week.
This after they just RAISED TAXES!!!
June’s dismal returns, which top state lawmakers were briefed on this week, are the latest sign that Massachusetts has yet to turn the corner on the recession.
And yet we are being massaged daily in the business section that the recession is ending, the signs are good, we've hit bottom, we've turned a corner!
F*** YOU, lying s*** media!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It offers a coda to a disastrous year, which saw revenue drop $3.2 billion below initial expectations and change so rapidly that revised estimates never caught up with reality....
Neither does GOVERNMENT!!!!
One likely solution for closing the gap is tapping state reserves. The state currently has about $800 million left in its reserve account, but $215 million is already budgeted for the current fiscal year, which started July 1. If officials plug the additional revenue drop with reserves, it would put the account at its lowest level since 1994. The state began the fiscal year with about $2.1 billion in that account.
Just wondering why the state is SITTING on DOUGH when it is BORROWING ITSELF into OBLIVION?
The continued deterioration also puts the state in a precarious situation moving forward, and some are predicting it will require emergency budget cuts just one week after Governor Deval Patrick signed a $27 billion state budget for the fiscal year.
And the TAX INCREASES that went along with it!
State need money?
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Biotech Giveaway Was Borrowed Money
Massachusetts Residents Taken For a Ride
Slow Saturday Special: Day at the Movies
How many times I gotta put 'em up?
Economists and state budget observers warned several months ago that the state is in a multiyear cycle that will strain budgets until at least 2014.
But we will be OUT of RECESSION by the end of the year!!! Pffffffttt!!!!
The state reserve account has been a cushion, but it is at such a low level that there is almost no room for error in the years ahead, a bit like going on a daylong hike in the desert with only half a canteen of water.
Then WE ARE FUCKED, fellow resident!!!!!
Time to GET the HELL out of this state!
To help alleviate the revenue shortfall for this fiscal year, lawmakers approved more than $1 billion in new taxes.... Administration officials are currently going through a budgeting process to see if any agencies and departments did not spend all the money budgeted last year. There has been money left over in years past....
But that seems unlikely....
Still convinced state government is there to help you and not a looting operation?
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