"State laws target texting, smoking; Legislatures enact slew of new bans for ’10" By Scott Bauer, Associated Press | December 31, 2009
MADISON, Wis. - Texting while driving, smoking in public, and cooking with artery-clogging trans fats will be that much harder under a slew of state laws set to take effect around the country on Friday.
Faced with huge budget shortfalls and little extra money to throw around, state lawmakers exercised their (inexpensive) power to clamp down on impolite, unhealthy, and sometimes dangerous behaviors in 2009.
Yeah, INEXPENSIVE and PROFITABLE to THEM, taxpayers, not you!!!!
Even toy guns were targeted, but it may not have that big of an effect.
How about TARGETING the REAL ONES, as in NO MORE WARS, huh?
Related: What is Your State Legislature Doing Today?
Imitation guns used for theater productions and other events are exempted, as are replicas of firearms produced before 1898, BB guns, and paintball or pellet guns.
Major retailers in the state also say they don’t expect any major changes from the new ban.
And California will be the first state to partially ban the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants in 2010, following several major cities and fast-food chains that have erased the notorious artery-clogger from menus.
Sort of DANCED around all the TAX INCREASES, didn't they?
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"Economist fears tax-hike pressure" by Bloomberg News | January 4, 2010
WASHINGTON - Record US budget deficits may intensify pressure for higher taxes should the government fail to reduce spending, Harvard University economics professor Martin Feldstein said.
“Unless there are major actions, we’re going to face unprecedented deficits,’’ Feldstein said yesterday during a panel discussion in Atlanta sponsored by the Allied Social Science Associations.
He said at another panel that he sees a “significant risk that the economy could run out of steam in 2010 and we could see a further downturn’’ as the level of fiscal stimulus wanes.
Nah! Lying newspapers and government say everything is great, so....
The loss of 7.2 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007 and takeovers of failing banks have strained federal finances.
Related: "The economy has lost more than 8 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007"
Yeah, but WHO is really COUNTING the MSM LIES anymore, anyway?
The United States registered a record 14th consecutive monthly budget deficit in November, and the excess of spending over revenue may exceed $1 trillion for the second consecutive fiscal year after reaching a record $1.4 trillion in 2009.
The US deficit could spur substantial pressure for higher taxes, said Feldstein, who is a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, the panel charged with determining when US recessions begin and end.
He served as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Reagan administration.
“The thing that I worry about is a value-added tax’’ which “would be passed through in the form of higher prices,’’ Feldstein said.A (rhymes with) you-know-who, readers.
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But they KNOW NOTHING ELSE, America!
"State budget shortfalls may reach $180 billion this year" by Shannon McCaffrey, Associated Press | January 4, 2010
ATLANTA - If you thought state budgets were in bad shape last year, just wait: 2010 promises to be brutal for lawmakers - many facing reelection - as they scramble to find enough money to keep their states running without raising taxes.
Tax collections continue to sputter.
Not according to my deceptive state officials and newspaper.
Federal stimulus dollars are about to dry up. Rainy day funds have been tapped. And demand for services - like Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment benefits - is soaring....
The crunch could also mean new tolls to fund road projects, more prisoners being released early to trim corrections budgets, and the end of welfare programs....
Yeah, F*** YOUR SAFETY and YOUR HEALTH, Americans!
State tax collections lagged behind even pessimistic projections.
And yet we have STATE SHITTERS running around with shit-colored glasses telling us LIES!!!
Forty-three states and the District of Columbia have already slashed spending on popular services, including education, health care, and services to the elderly and disabled.
Yeah, but BANKS and WARS get TRILLIONS they DON'T EVEN NEED!!!
With cuts reaching into classrooms and hitting the neediest residents, elected officials will be under increasing pressure to find more revenue.
It's OVER, America!!!
Your country has been DESTROYED by THIEVES and their ENABLERS in GOVERNMENT!!!!
But in a number of fiscally conservative states, leaders have pledged not to raise taxes, leaving them few options.
How about WAY LESS GOVERNMENT?!!
How does that one grab the pro-government mouthpiece media?
One possible rescue could come in the form of more stimulus money from Washington, but the prospects are uncertain.
Yeah, let's BORROW EVEN MORE!!!!
That will SOLVE EVERYTHING!!!!
States last year were able to tap President Obama’s economic stimulus package to soften the blow of budget cuts and some of that money is still left.
Politics are also at play.
When are they NOT?
Twenty-two governorships are open in 2010, meaning incumbents on their way out the door could try to hand off the budget misery to their successors....
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Speaking of governors (thankfully) on their way out:
"$338m speed trap plan in Calif. faces roadblocks" by Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg News | January 24, 2010
LOS ANGELES - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to snap photos of speeders to raise $338 million faces opposition even from within his party, a sign of the challenge he faces in closing a $20 billion budget gap.
I thought things were only supposed to be for terrorists.
The Republican’s Jan. 8 proposal, which would install 500 cameras and charge as much as $325 a ticket, may be too costly for residents struggling with joblessness and tax bills amid the worst recession since the Great Depression, said state Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth, one of 14 in his party in the 40-member body.
“I don’t think there’s much, if any, support among Senate Republicans for such a proposal,’’ Hollingsworth, of Murrieta, said in a statement. “We should control spending, and not allow the budget problems of the state to cause us to continue soaking Californians.’’
Good thing he is leaving in November, 'eh, California?
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Even with support from all 25 Democrats in the Senate, Schwarzenegger would still need backing from at least two Republican senators for the two-thirds majority required to pass his proposal. The budget plan also needs to go through the state Assembly....
Schwarzenegger, 62, joins governors including New York’s David Paterson in seeking ways to balance spending plans after state tax collections nationwide fell the most in 46 years in the first three quarters of 2009, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government....
And what they do collect they stuff in their own pockets and pass out to well-connected interests and friends.
Paterson, 55, a Democrat, this month proposed putting 50 speed cameras on highways as part of a plan to raise $1 billion with new taxes and fees, which also includes a levy on sugar- sweetened beverages.
So when are they going to start weighing s***s and charging for those, huh?
Just a matter of time, AmeriKa.
Arizona raised about $700 million this month through a sale-leaseback of buildings including prisons, while Pennsylvania is expanding gambling to boost tax revenue.
Yeah, invite those immoral, degenerate, community-destroying criminals in, that will help.
Assemblyman Mike Eng, a Democrat from Monterey Park, in an interview last week:
“I think the public will have to be convinced it’s an issue of public safety and not just revenue.’’
We know what it's about.
Eng, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, sponsored legislation that would have put cameras on street sweepers to photograph cars parked illegally and blocking cleaning. Schwarzenegger vetoed that bill in October, saying it presented “a significant risk of violating an individual’s privacy’’ and could “lead to the unwarranted proliferation of camera enforcement in many other arenas.’’
Pick your poison, 'eh, California?
Want a D or an R on the bottle?
That's your "choice" here in AmeriKa -- and Kalifornia!!
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TITUSVILLE, Fla. - Contractors led by
Oh, so the CONTRACTORS that NASA is going to hire will be WAR LOOTERS, 'eh?
Related:
"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s mission to return astronauts to the moon would be grounded with the space agency instead getting an additional $5.9 billion over five years to encourage private companies to build, launch, and operate their own spacecraft for the benefit of NASA and others. NASA would pay the private companies to carry US astronauts."
Haven't they STOLEN ENOUGH of OUR CASH?
The shuttle shutdown will drain jobs in a state grappling with a projected budget gap of as much as $3 billion in the next fiscal year, as a 39 percent plunge in home sales from their 2005 peak and unemployment exceeding the US average at 11.5 percent in November cut revenue.
Florida is among states suffering from the economic slump as they cope with $193 billion of combined budget deficits in the current fiscal year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said last month....
Up above it said $180 billion.
But hey, what's another DECEPTIVE LOW-BALL NUMBER by the MSM and whose counting, right?
And as Oregon goes(?), so goes the nation:
"Oregon voters to decide on tax increases; Proposals target corporations and the wealthy" by Tim Fought, Associated Press | January 24, 2010
PORTLAND, Ore. - If any Americans are willing to fork over more to state governments in 2010, it might just be those of Oregon, where voters are deciding the fate of two proposed tax increases that target the wealthy and corporations.
Oh, that is NOT US!!
Oregon voters the past two weeks have been marking referendum ballots on two tax issues, one raising rates on people who make more than $125,000 a year in taxable income - $250,000 in two-earner households - and on businesses, many of whom pay a minimum tax of $10 a year.
There are ALREADY TOO MANY TAXES, dammit!
We need LESS TYRANNY, 'er, GOVERNMENT!
The mailed-in and dropped-off votes will be counted Tuesday. The results are likely to be part of the national spin cycle the next morning and could give legislators in other states a hint about whether they can ask taxpayers for help in repairing ravaged budgets.
The GLOBE NEVER GOT BACK to me on this.
And if they want our "help" they can STOP THROWING TAX LOOT AWAY to WELL-CONNECTED INTERESTS!!
The only independent polls made public so far show the tax increases ahead but with shrinking margins. If they pass, that would be a break with history.
They must not have then; otherwise, Globe would have gotten back to us.
Despite Oregon’s reputation for left-leaning politics, voters have often shot down tax measures.
Sounds JUST LIKE Massachusetts!
Maybe THIS NATION is NOT as LIBERAL as the LIBERAL MSM want us to believe, 'eh? Yeah, readers, I am TIRED of having an AGENDA SHOVED in my face by a FACADE called a "newspaper."
But if the poll results prove out....
They must not have; otherwise, the Globe would have covered it.
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Here is how the tax money is used everywhere it seems:
"Corruption runs rampant in Pa. coal country" by Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press | January 25, 2010
I'm starting to wonder where it DOES NOT in AmeriKa!!!!
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Another day, another fallen politician in the coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania, where FBI agents and federal prosecutors have spent the past year rooting out government corruption in a region known for its pay-to-play politics, suspicion of outsiders and resistance to political change.
Twenty-three people in Luzerne County - including a school superintendent, three county judges, four courthouse officials, and five school board members - have been charged in unrelated schemes.
Wow.
In the most egregious abuse of the public’s trust, two judges are charged with taking $2.8 million in kickbacks to place youth offenders in for-profit detention facilities - a scandal known as “kids for cash.’’ While thousands of juvenile convictions have been dismissed by the state Supreme Court, youth advocates say the lives of countless children and their families were ruined.
Related: Incarcerating Children is Big Business
The ongoing federal corruption probe has sent tremors through an insular political culture where graft, patronage, and nepotism have been accepted practice since the golden age of anthracite coal a century ago - when waves of European immigrants arrived in this mountainous region 100 miles north of Philadelphia to work in mines, breweries, and railroads. Their descendants still live in the tiny patch towns and tightly packed houses built by long-defunct coal companies.
Makes it sound like the corruption is an all-AmeriKan tradition, 'eh?
Most of the charges filed over the past year involve public officials accepting cash or gifts in exchange for helping contractors win government work or some other benefit. A few officials are charged with theft of taxpayer dollars. The FBI is also looking into allegations that candidates for public school teaching positions paid bribes to school board members to land jobs.
Oh, is that how you get 'em? No wonder I've been out of work so long.
And how come the FBI has to do this?
WHERE is the STATE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL?
“Things have been like this for so long that I don’t think many people see a lot of wrong in what they’ve done,’’ said Greg Skrepenak, 39, a former offensive lineman who played for the Oakland Raiders and Carolina Panthers in the 1990s....
Few in the coal region are surprised. Machine-style politics has flourished here for decades; government jobs and other taxpayer-funded goodies are often doled out to the politically connected, not just in Luzerne County but throughout the area.
And the NATION!!!! My state is RANK with the stuff!!!!
Federal prosecutors have set their sights on the courthouse in neighboring Lackawanna County, and indictments are widely expected.
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Seems like it is time to SCRAP the whole system and START AGAIN, 'eh, American?
