The main components in the new budget package include a blend of the governor’s previous proposals along with some new additions. The key provisions -
The Old: - Temporary (yeah right) sales tax increase - Alcohol tax increase - New tax on oil production
The New: - Cut dependent care tax exemption from from $309 to $103 per dependent. - Adoption of legislative Republicans’ proposal to borrow surplus money from mental and children’s health programs. This requires voter approval. - Carryover portion of current deficit to ’10-’11 fiscal year. - $4.7 billion in borrowing from the private sector.
The Good: - $15.4 billion in spending cuts
A more ambitious proposal that would deliver the sweeping reform that is needed to right the Golden State’s fiscal ship, as well as address structural budgetary problems, would have included tax and expenditure limitations that tie growth in state spending to inflation and population growth. Putting all the state's expenditures online in a searchable format would also be a step in the right direction, enabling more than 38 million California taxpayers to see how their tax dollars are spent and help identify potential savings.
ATR has repeatedly called attention to the adverse economic impact that the proposed taxes increases would have (see here, here, here, and here) but Schwarzenegger refuses to give up his push for tax increases despite the fact that the entire GOP caucus, whose votes are needed to pass a budget, has repeatedly made clear that tax hikes are off the table.
Schwarzenegger seems to continue where the Obama campaign left off as there is a heavy dose of HOPE found in his budget proposal. The $4.7 billion in proposed borrowing is contingent upon the financial market getting “much healthier than it is now” – not exactly something economists, are anyone for that matter, are predicting for the foreseeable future.
Grover Norquist has a recent RedState post where he discusses why he created the first ever RNC Debate.
Visit www.RNCDebate.org and submit questions for the candidates for RNC Chair. Stay logged on the watch the debate LIVE from your computer on January 5th at 1:00pm EST.
In his post, Grover said:
Some French Guy once said that “War is too important to be left to the generals.” Well, the RNC chairmanship is too important to be left to the politicians. Every liberty loving American deserves to have a stake in who is elected to lead the party that should, and could be the leader of the fight for freedom in America.
Click here to read the post and all comments are welcome.
Don't forget to visit www.RNCDebate.org and submit your question for the candidates.
Boarded up homes. Factories crumbling to dust. Towns depopulated. Once giant behemoths of production, now little more than rubble. Former broad causeways of industry now only populated by tumbleweeds and vermin feasting upon carrion.
A post-apocalyptic scenario? A nuclear holocaust?
No, a realistic depiction of the future of California if the Democrats' preferred tax policy becomes a reality. California is already bleeding citizens at an alarming rate. In the last 5 years over 2.5 million tax-refugees have fled its borders and sought sanctuary in lower-tax states. Virtually no-one chooses to move there. And this mass exodus of almost Biblical proportions is increasing in raw terms at an alarming average rate of 25% a year.
Rather than reversing this trend, California's policies of reducing economic freedom have been statistically proven to exacerbate it. Just as when climbed the Berlin wall, people are fleeing California's opressive tax regime in search of economic freedom. The GoldenState is set to become the GhostState.
As we reported yesterday, California's Democrats again put their hard-left ideological agenda above the needs of the California people and voted for an unprecedented and unconstitutional $9.1 billion tax hike. Having passed this illegal proposal and given a giant up-yours to the constitution and California taxpayers, they announced lawmakers are going home for the holidays.
In a rare moment of sanity however, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger briefly remembered that he was actually elected on the promise to cut the size of Government and said he'd veto the proposal and recall the legislators by Executive Order (probably fearing that if he didn't recall them, he himself would be recalled). Of course, his reasons for the veto had nothing to do with the illegality of the legislation, or the job-killing, economy-destroying, freedom-hating tax grabs, but only due to the fact that they didn't include some of his (admittedly laudable) proposals to relax draconian Environmental regulations. But in the torrid wasteland of Californian politics, we'll take whatever victory we can.
Today, the Governor warned Big Labor that he will order two-day-a-month unpaid furloughs for state employees, and an outright 10 percent pay cut for managers and non-union employees over 18 months and a 10 percent elimination of jobs in the state workforce. The unions, of course, plan to sue, preferring everyone to be unemployed in California equally.
The Governor also stated: "I ask the people of California ... to put pressure on the legislators. E-mail them, call them, and send them cards. Really bombard them and just let them know 'we sent you there to do the right thing.' Indeed. So for once we agree with the Governor. Contact your legislators and let them know exactly where they can stick their tax hikes."
Under the Democrats whopping $9.4 billion tax hike, taxpayers will be slugged with higher sales tax, income tax, and oil severance tax and a 39 cent per gallon gas fee (replacing the current excise tax and effectively adding 13 cents per gallon to the price of fuel)
Using legalistic sophistry and creative interpretations light years from original intent, they claim they are allowed to do this DESPITE it having being blocked in congress. In doing so, they have chosen to blatantly disregard the California Constitution which clearly states "any changes in state taxes enacted for the purpose of increasing revenues...must require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature".
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and a tax grab called a fee increase still reeks of of putrid stench of corrupt big government putting special interests and lobbyists above the interests of taxpayers. Changing the name does not change the nature. Call it what you will, this IS a tax grab, this WILL hurt California, and this IS unconstitutional.
By caving into tax-and spend lobbyists and proposing this, California democrats have only ensured that, if passed, the state will spend millions defending - and ultimately losing - a legal appeal. Hurting taxpayers even more.
Both houses of the Legislature are now scheduled to meet at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday to debate the plan. All California taxpayers should be calling their legislators now and expressing their outrage and this sickening legal maneuvering.
UPDATE: The California State Assembly passed the unconstitutional tax-hike, but Gov. Schwarzenegger announced it will be vetoed. More posts to come as this story develops. Stay tuned!
Apparently President-elect Barack Obama has heard the complaints from radical left-wing supporters that his Cabinet appointments to date have been too conservative.According to several reports, Mr. Obama has tapped Big-Labor lackey Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) as Secretary of the Department of Labor.
Since 2000, Hilda Solis has represented a safe Democrat district which includes heavily Hispanic East Los Angeles and stretches east to the San GabrielValley.She was born in 1957 and is the daughter of a Teamsters Union shop steward.In 1980 she worked in the Carter administration’s Office of Hispanic Affairs.She returned to Los Angeles in 1981 and climbed the political ladder from community college trustee to politically appointed Los Angeles County Insurance Commissioner.In 1992 she was elected to the state legislature and then to the state Senate two years later.
In 2000, she made her way to Congress with the support of organized labor, the radical feminist fundraising group EMILY’s List, the Sierra Club, leftwing Senator Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.
Congresswoman Solis is an officer of the radical Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives.According to the leftwing Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), Solis votes with the left 100 percent of the time.
Among Solis’ biggest campaign contributors are labor union, including the Teamsters, the leftwing Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Laborers’ International Union of North America, which has historical ties to organized crime.Nearly 60 percent of her Political Action Committee donations come from organized labor.
Sounds like the perfect person to lead the Labor Department in balancing the interests of employers, rank-and-file-workers and unions, right?With a puppet like this, Mr. Obama might have dispensed with the charades and just appointed SEIU president Andy Stern to the job . . . but Stern would never take the pay cut.
A tourism-killing proposal to give Montgomery County commissioners permission to levy up to an additional 4 percent lodgings tax appears doomed in the Ohio Senate
A survey of New Yorkers on Gov. Paterson's shameless tax-grab is opposed by 56% of voters, with only 26% in support. By a 74 percent to 15 percent, they told the pollsters that public-employee unions could be doing more to close the budget gap.
Massachusettslawmakers are considering toll hikes and gas taxes, potentially adding hundreds of dollars per year to the cost of many commutes. An activist dressed as a chicken showed up at the morning hearing on Beacon Hill to protest Governor Deval Patrick's decision not to meet with an anti-toll group called Stop the Pike Hike. Yet Gov. Deval is refusing to address the states overspending problem, saying close ties to President-elect Barack Obama could position the state for an “historic” windfall in a 32 page request to grab Federal Cash
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine proposed a 30-cent a pack hike in the cigarette tax. As Rep. Cantor pointed out, "What the governor is going to do now, is he is going to go after one of Virginia's biggest employers by imposing a job-killing tax. This issue is about jobs, it's about the economy and this is an attack on Virginia's economy."
South Carolina House members have filed bills calling for raising taxes including raising cigarette taxes by 1300% (not a typo), and imposing a sales tax on groceries.
This weekCalifornia Republicans have announced a budget counter-proposal that would avoid raising taxes and eliminate wasteful spending. The plan was shot down by legislative Democrats. A Democrat proposal to implement a temporary (yeah right) sales tax hike although rather than end the floor session, the Speaker announced that lawmakers were locked in, preventing them from leaving the Assembly floor and nearby meeting rooms (although ultimately later relented).
There seems to be a competition amongst Democratic Governors this month on who can slam taxpayers in their states the most. But none compares to the mind-numbing horror of when New York Governor David " Pathological liar and Freedom-Hater" Paterson announced a detailed plan to gut the New York economy. Indeed so ambitious is this plan that no sector of the economy will be left undamaged by the devastating tax hikes of Hurricane Paterson. With 137 new tax increases, its hard to think of any residents who won’t suffer.
Overall, $4.1 billion dollars will be stolen from taxpayers to help fund Gov. Paterson's meglomania. Some proposals are straight out of the far-left playbook: successful people are greedy and must be punished, so there's an additional 5% 'luxury' tax on cars costing more than $60,000, aircraft costing more than $500,000, yachts costing at least $200,000 and jewelry and furs costing in excess of $20,000. But to be fair, other tax hikes demonstrate a hatred of the poor, with fee hikes on motor vehicle licensing by 25%, fee hikes on vehicle registration, parks and auto insurance. The gas tax limitation is eliminated, allowing the tax to skyrocket – hitting all consumers and all businesses alike.But these taxes on cars are only part of the general hatred of mobility in Albany - taxes on taxies, clothing, limousines and buses will also be hiked.
Other changes of note include that food licensing fees will be hiked, driving the price of food up (and forcing some businesses to shut down or not open at all). Physician fees will be almost doubled, making heath care more unaffordable to people. Possibly attempting to stun the opposition into non-action out of sheer surprise, the tax on small-business tobacco retailers will go up... wait for it...ONE THOUSAND PERCENT.
And then there are the revenue grabs that are so useless and bizzare that I doubt even the Governor can justify them with a straight face, like fingerprinting and background checks at current fee levels of $75 for any individual who is applying for an insurance license. Or that the DMV will require everyone to purchase new license plates - at an inflated cost.
Finally, there's just the Orwellian, like providing the Department of Taxation with "a variety of tax enforcement tools including the ability to verify tax liability through the use of third party information."
New Yorkers thinking they can escape the nightmarish horror of living Paterson's Socialist Utopia through recreational activities are especially under attack. Anything even remotely fun will be punished: Movie tickets, sporting events, soda, cigars (almost tripled), massages, cable and satellite TV and radio, amusement parks and rides, circus admissions - even iTunes music and book downloads!!! The tax on wine would increase from 18.9 cents per gallon to 51 cents per gallon, and the beer tax would increase from 11 cents per gallon to 24 cents per gallon – roughly 30-cents a case. Such is the bitter, twisted mind of Gov. Paterson that the underlying theme of this budget is "if it brings people joy, it must be eliminated through high taxes".
Of course, this kill-joy socialist utopia wouldn't be complete without the putrid stench of paternalistic social engineering. Included in the package is an 18 percent sin tax on non-diet soda, with the specific reason stated by the Governor that "By increasing the price, it will discourage individuals, especially children and teenagers, from excessive consumption of these beverages." I am only surprised that bright colors haven't been taxed yet. Oh, there are also 10 new fines to "discourage dangerous behavior": Automated Speed Enforcement Cameras are expected to bring in an extra $100,000 annually, and the assessment of civil penalties for violations of Human Rights (Yes, this is actually used as a revenue raiser) is authorized.
A full list can be found here. As the Chairman of the Conservative Party of New York described, "You're sending notice to the people of New York that we really don't want you here."If you're a New Yorker, a stiff drink is advised (before they are taxed to extinction) to help you cope with the deep well of depression you shall no doubt fall into on reading it.
Now, considering this whole fiscal mess was CAUSED by a 25% increase above inflation in government spending, you would think a budget like this would include an overall cut in spending, but no.In an act of pure shamelessness, Gov. Paterson has increased total government spending by $1.4 billion.
Also consider that on November 5 of this year, when asked whether tax hikes would be included in his budget proposal, Paterson responded simply that “There will be no tax increase.”
Today the Arizona Republic reported that outgoing Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is preparing to sign an executive order on her way out the door that would give public sector labor unions a heavier hand at the negotiation table with state agencies.
The five page executive order, obtained by the Republic, would enable “25,500 state employees to select union representatives who would have a seat at the table with state officials during talks regarding employee pay, working conditions, disciplinary actions and other personnel issues.” The order would also “grant state workers a labor authority known as meet-and-confer, mandating that the employees' chosen union representatives meet at least quarterly with agency heads.”
According to the draft executive order “the authority would be granted to employees of more than three dozen Cabinet agencies, minus the Department of Public Safety and the Arizona National Guard.” Action on the executive order is expected soon.
It is a model of hypocrisy that Napolitano is going to impose conditions on her successor that she herself refused to deal with. This midnight executive order is nothing more than a payoff to big labor. If Napolitano truly believed that this was a good idea and in the state’s best interest, she would have signed this executive order upon assuming office 6 years ago.
Aside from the shear hypocrisy and implicit quid pro quo, critics of the executive order contend that it will complicate the coming budget negotiations and hinder imposition of tough but necessary budgetary reforms.
Nearly every state in the country is facing a current or projected budget deficit. Arizona’s deficit, at $1.2 billion, is the highest in the nation as a percent of the state’s budget. The state’s deficit is clearly the result of profligate governance and rampant overspending. The AZ budget has increased by 63 percent from FY 2004 to 2008. Comparatively, the economy grew by only 42 percent, while population and inflation rose 30 percent during that same time period. The AZ government now spends more than 7 percent of state personal income—its highest level since 1980. Furthermore, Arizona residents worked 194 days last year, well over half the year, just to pay for the total cost of their government.
AZ needs to live within its means and adjust to the contracting economy just as hardworking families are doing throughout the Grand Canyon State. Unfortunately, this pending executive order will make it much more difficult to enact the necessary reforms and cuts.
Implementation of this order will be the ultimate &*@% you-gram from Napolitano to Arizona taxpayers on her way out the door. Given the fiscal situation in the state, Napolitano’s order is on par with firing a canon at a ship that is struggling to stay afloat.
He's calling for higher taxes now on the Corner. Not exactly a good way to win elections, improve the brand, or stop the growth of big government.
His logic: government's going to get bigger anyway, so let's pay for it. Somehow he thinks increasing taxes will actually relieve the pressure to increase the size of government. What amazingly backwards logic.
Do you have the blues? If you're one of the half million plus Americans without a job, there's a chance you may have the blues (and if you are, I would suggest selling your computer and using the money to buy low priced tech stock)...but that's just me.
ATR President Grover Norquist sings about his blues, his "Bailout Blues" on FoxNews.com today.
Norquist says:
"After the actual or de facto socialization of the Big Three Three, Toyota and Honda will still do their best to avoid the marauding horde that is the UAW. They will still dutifully pay their U.S. corporate income taxes (a country which has the second-highest rate in the world, incidentally, besides, of all places, Japan). They will also continue to dominate the auto industry—indeed, they will be the auto industry. GM-Ford will pretend to be car manufacturers, but it will be a sad farce. If not allowed to die, GM and Ford will simply be nationalized, and become zombies propped up by the unwilling grace of taxpayers."
Massachusetts Governor, in a stomach-churning display of Machiavellian manipulation joined the ranks of politicians admitting to using the 'financial crisis' as an excuse to implement their radical ideological agenda, by saying "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste".
We often joke about the government solving unemployment by hiring people to dig holes, and others to fill them up. It would seem officials in Indiana didn't get the irony, and are applying for Federal bailout funds to hire people to ... fill in holes.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed eliminating the corporate income tax and by eliminating tax breaks given to spur certain industries and research. South Carolina could join four other states, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming, with no corporate income tax, Sanford said. In addition, Sanford said the state should create an alternate, flat income tax rate — 3.65 percent — funded by a 30-cent increase in the state’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax. Sanford has also asked for a panel to study the inequities in business property taxes.
In North Carolina, bitter and twisted taxpayer-hating members of a commission looking at future road-building, bridge and public transit needs says even higher taxes and fees are needed, on top of the hikes it approved last month.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell offered a plan yesterday to fill what he says will be an expected $1.6 billion state overspending problem through $500 million in spending cuts, $476 million in reserve funds, and use $174 million from the sale of oil and gas drilling rights in state forestland. The remaining $450 million gap with money from a yet-to-be approved federal aid package.
Iowa will cut $40 million from its general budget by freezing most hiring, halting out-of-state travel, reducing purchases and making cuts to the state's public universities, Gov. Chet Culver announced Tuesday. Alternatively, he could be cutting $77 million dollars. Have to love the precision of mainstream media.
Arizona will have to write checks for more than $870,000 if all Gov. Janet Napolitano's employees are fired or quit when Jan Brewer takes over early next year.
Apparently believing the best way for a drug-addict to be cured is through more drugs, Kentucky House budget chairman Harry Moberly Jr. is arguing for a tax hike to 'help overcome' its overspending problem.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue told state lawmakers Tuesday that he will propose an “aggressive” package of borrowing to build roads, schools, libraries and other facilities to help stimulate Georgia’s struggling economy. The governor would not say how big the package will be. However, even in good economic years he’s generally asked for about $1 billion in borrowing
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo — along with five key administration members — will take a voluntary 10 percent pay cut in 2009 to save the state $100,000.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich yesterday visited workers who had taken over a Chicago Factory Republic Windows & Doors, lending them his strong moral credibility and authority. Blagojevich also used his personal knowledge of the legal system and deep respect and zeal for the law to declare that the state would pursue a federal injunction against the company and bank if negotiations were not satisfactory. Also in Illinois, despite their state's chronic overspending problem, Gov. Blagojevichhired 208 prison guards who don't have a prison to guard, at a cost to taxpayers $10.8 million for their first year of work. Perhaps motivated by a his dedication to better understand the law and get a grip on the prison problem through a deeper understanding of the prison system through personal experience, Gov. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris were arrested earlier today in a 76-page federal indictment alleging conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle got taxpayer hopes up on Friday saying that he does not plan to delay tax deductions on health insurance premiums or reverse an income tax deduction on Social Security benefits to help solve a record $5.4 billion deficit, and that he doesn't expect to recommend an increase in the $75 annual vehicle registration fee. But then he announced he wants to bring back the death tax, introduce a tax on oil-company profits and tax hospitals more.
Vermont is considering reducing its two Amtrak routes, which only survive thanks to $5 million in subsidies. Why they're not questioning why taxpayers should continue subsidizing something people obviously don't want to pay for (or else they'll actually ride Amtrak) and not doing the eminently sensible is beyond this blogger.
The growth of Louisiana’s Medicaid program must be brought under control or it will soon consume a larger share of state taxpayer dollars than are invested in education, the state’s health chief said Friday.
Arizona Secretary of State and soon to be Governor Jan Brewer has indicated her willingness to increase taxes to help pay for the deficit caused by government growing by 60% in the last 6 years, in contrast to current Gov. Janet Napolitano's continued pledge not to raise taxes to balance the state budget. Hopefully the obvious solution - cutting the government programs that actually created this problem - will also be considered.
On a recent visit to the San Tan Flat I exercised my god given right to cut up the rug (or dirt in the case of San Tan). Although that might not have been possible if not for the merry band of liberty loving litigators at the Institute for Justice. Below is a catchy musical rendition of Pinal County's unconstitutional attempt to ban dancing and shut down San Tan Flat. Thanks to IJ, liberty prevailed.
Many have long suspected the calls by the High Priests of Climate Change for higher taxes is little more than thinly disguised crypto-communism/fascism. Still, it's rare to get actual video footage of them being, well, fascists (Obama Brownshirts Youth notwithstanding) .
New proposals in Rhode Island call for the introduction of tolls at the state line for every interstate highway and a new tax that would be applied to each mile a vehicle is driven. If these proposals go into effect, Rhode Island would be the last place in which you would want to drive.
It seems the Pennsylvania government has decided to give itself a little Christmas gift, a $2.5 billion dollar gift which it will take out of the pockets of Keystone State residents through a 25 percent toll increase on the PA turnpike. Revenue derived from the toll hike will be used to pay down debt created by profligate spending in Harrisburg.
December 5, 2008 will mark the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. In what may well be considered one of the most foolish US government policies of the 20th century (arguably only the New Deal was worse) in 1920 the 18th Amendment outlawed the sale and consumption of alcohol in the United States making America a "dry" country. Thirteen years later, after abject (and predictable) failure, common sense prevailed and the 21st amendment was ratified repealing the 18th. During the time of alcohol-Prohibition Era, people drank more, crime soared (particularly homocide), corruption flourished and individual rights and freedoms were trampled upon. Individuals who wanted to exercise their freedom to choose (to booze) were outlawed. Indeed, the exercise in big-government nanny-statism lasted as long as it did only due to bootleggers financial support of prohibition as it made them rich. Prohibition stands today as the manifestation of the Nanny State. Yet Prohibition’s legacy continues to punish consumers and small business owners across the country – especially during this economic downturn. Fifteen states still ban Sunday spirits sales at package stores. Seven states ban all forms of spirits tastings. Seven states continue some form of a ban on the sale of alcohol on state and national Election Days. Taxes and fees already take 79.60% of the average bottle of spirit. Indeed, it would seem that the enemies of freedom are now trying to curtail our freedom to drink not through banning alcohol, but through the insidious method of making it unaffordable. Considering themselves the sole arbitrator of the public good, knowing better than the poor common folk, they consider it justified to impose their morals and big-government arrogant paternalism. A tax hike on beer in NY was proposed just yesterday to 'curtail teen drinking'. California's tax-and spend Governor wants to increase the spirits excise tax from $3.30/gallon to $7.57; wine from $0.20/gallon to $1.48; and beer from $0.20 to $0.73. Virtually all states are currently considering increasing their alcohol taxes. The last two increases in the Federal Tax Rate on spirits led to the elimination of 98,000 jobs generated directly and indirectly by the distilled spirits industry, nearly $1.3 billion in lost wages, and more than n $150 million in unemployment benefits. $1.1 billion reduction in personal and corporate income, sales, and property tax revenue to federal, state and local governments. Tax hikes are never a good idea. Taxpayers & freedom fighters must unite to end this disturbing trend. Nanny state paternalism is morally abhorrent and must be opposed, particularly when combined with job-destroying tax hikes. So raise a glass tonight to celebrate 75 years of freedom. But remember: the price for that freedom is eternal vigilance. The power to tax is the power to destroy; it is only through our united voice that liberty remains unemcombered.
The first episode is on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) otherwise known as "card check" with Ryan Ellis, the Executive Director of AmericanShareholders.org.
Additional episodes will cover other legislation listed on Big Labor's Christmas Wish List. Stay tuned to AWF's YouTube channel for more information and continued updates.
In what can only be described as an attempt to win the "World's Most Idiotic Waste of Taxpayer Money" title, British Police are spending taxpayer funds to combat "alcohol-related problems" not by combating crime, increasing visibility, catching criminals etc... no, instead they are.. .wait for it ... distributing taxpayer-funded flipflops to drunk women!
Police will carry bags of the unisex flip-flops and will hand them to anyone who looks unsteady, and the flat shoes with a safe-drinking message on them will also be available from the Council's 'Safe Bus'.
Of course, clubbers like the idea: Danielle Bolton, 19, said: "My heels hurt at the end of the night so I tend to take them off. It's a hell of a lot easier to walk with flip-flops." Well, that certainly justifies the plan!
I’m just waiting for taxpayer funded foot-rubs to come soon…
President-elect Barack Obama met with 48 current and incoming governors in Pennsylvania today. Salivating and licking their lips at the prospect of unlimited Federal cash to bail them out of the catastrophes caused by their bungling financial mismanagement and chronic overspending, it is clear that so many state governors using this opportunity to increase the size of their budgets, increase By crying 'financial crisis', all they are doing is seeking flimsy excuses to expand their power and increase the size of government. This is not just having your snout in the trough. It is having your two front trotters in as well.
North Dakota Governor John Hoeven proposed a $7.7 billion budget to lawmakers on Wednesday, including $2.7 billion in general fund spending, emphasizing a boost in education spending, $400 million in tax relief and building a "healthy" reserve. Whilst the tax cuts, which have $300 million going to property tax reductions and $100 million to income tax relief, are commendable, a 9% annual increase in state spending is not. Whilst North Dakota currently enjoys a healthy financial position, unless spending is reigned in - not expanded - this shall not be the case for much longer, especially in light of plunging commodity prices which have lined state coffers in recent years..
Good news from Wyoming where Gov. Dave Freudenthal released a statement asking residents to urge their state lawmakers -- some of whom campaigned on tax relief -- to reactivate the homestead property tax exemption. Although its somewhat disappointing that Freudenthal opted to cap eligibility at a home value of $237,000, it is still welcome tax relief for many Wyoming residents. Now to expand it!
In yet another poll that demonstrates the obvious, more than 70 percent of California residents listed the economy and the state budget as the top problems facing California - and two-thirds were unhappy with the way the state's leaders have faced the state's policy woes, including an $11.2 billion budget deficit for the current year. Considering the financial problems were caused by the state overspending, and the administration is refusing to structurally reduce spending (instead calling for tax hikes) the fact that California residents are sick of the incompetence of their elected officials is no surprise at all. Indeed, Gov. Schwarzenegger's approval rating has fallen by 18%, while only 21% of voters were pleased with the job state legislators are doing - a near record low. But Democratic lawmakers are still trying to get around the will of the people and raise taxes - yesterday they introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the state's two-thirds budget vote requirement.
With the race for RNC Chair and speculation surrounding it heating up, Morton Blackwell of the Leadership Institute has put together and sent out a 37 question survey to all prospective RNC Chairs.
While ATR does not necessarily endorse every question in this survey, included in it are a number of issues upon which all candidates for this important job should take a public stance. Questions found in the survey include:
Q: Democrats beat Republicans badly on the ground in 2008 by pouring vast amounts of time, talent, and money into an unprecedented, high-tech effort to identify and register supporters, communicate to those supporters, and get them to vote.
As RNC chairman, what would you do to make sure that Democrats do not have a comparable ground-game advantage in 2010?
Q: During a Republican presidency, the RNC is in many ways an appendage of the White House. Democrats now control the elected branches of our federal government.
As RNC chairman, would you speak out forcefully against White House and congressional plans to increase government spending and regulations?
Q: In addition to vigorously expanding the Republican presence on college campuses, what must be done to give the Republican Party credibility with young people as a desirable alternative to Obama and the Democratic Congress? How would you build us as a party to which young people can relate personally?
Q: Meetings of the RNC are usually scripted so that virtually every word spoken is prepared in advance and every vote unanimous. Rarely is any serious matter put before the committee and debated openly.
What would you do as national chairman to open up meetings of the RNC and allow RNC members to debate meaningful issues and actually decide some policies of the RNC?
Q: Political consultants often are the only ones who make big bucks in politics. They can be identified in three different categories.
Some work only for conservative Republican candidates. Others work for any Republican candidate who will pay them, regardless of that candidate's philosophy. Others work for any candidate who will pay them, regardless of party.
What would you do as RNC chairman to make sure that Republican candidates would know in advance which of these three categories a consultant fits into?
Q: Surveys showed a dramatic decline in recent years in the number of Americans identifying themselves as Republicans. It has frequently been said that our party "lost its brand."
What must be done to recover the more favorable opinion people recently had for the Republican Party? If it's a matter of "recovering our brand," what strategy and tactics should the party use to re-introduce itself attractively to the American people?
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has just released a proposed two-year state budget Monday that attacks Oregon residents with close to $2 billion in tax and fee hikes. These include taxes on corporations, sure to drive business interstate; taxes on hospitals and health insurance companies, without doubt hurting families, driving up the cost of businesses and making health care less affordable; cigarettes - after voters REJECTED such a proposal last year and finally $1 billion of extra car fees and a 2-cent gas tax increase, which will also drive up employment costs, force small businesses to shut down and hurt working families.
The reason for Oregon's financial mess would be clear to anyone with a 3rd grade math education: in 1991-3 Oregon spending was at $5.6 billion. Now it is $16 billion. Triple. OVERSPENDING AND OVERSPENDING ALONE IS THE PROBLEM: if you spend like a drunken sailor for years, you should expect to get a hangover. Unfortunately it would seem such basic reasoning skills are missing in the Governor's office.
The proposed Oregon budget is a disgrace. It doesn't even begin to address the structural problems of overspending and financial mismanagement. It will severely hurt Oregon's working families. It will squeeze people out of health care. It will force businesses to close and go interstate. Everyone will be worse off under this budget. If this disgraceful excuse for a budget is passed, it shall spell financial ruin for Oregon.
Oh... wait... it seems at least one group of people will benefit from this budget - included are $10 million in raises for the governor, legislators and other elected officials. Maybe Governor Kulongoski knows what he's doing after all...
If you thought Governors Rick Perry and Mark Sanford could not get anymore awesome, think again.
In today's WSJ, Perry and Sanford express their opposition to state bailouts saying:
"Our Founding Fathers were clear and deliberate in setting up a system whereby the federal government would only step in for that which states cannot do themselves. An expansionist federal government of the last century has moved us light-years away from that model, but it doesn't mean that Congress can't learn from states that are coming up with solutions that work."
We couldn't agree more.
You stay classy Perry and Sanford, because I don't think you can get anymore awesome!
The bottom line is that the Golden State’s budget crisis, projected to go nearly $30 billion in the red over the next 18 months, will overshadow everything in Sacramento next session.
In the article Assemblyman John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) makes clear, and rightfully so, that lawmakers need to “lay the foundation for structural reforms.”
On that point Perez is correct. The state desperately needs structural reforms to rein in rampant overspending (up over 40 percent in the last 5 years alone) such as a spending cap that ties increases in government spending to population growth and inflation, or reform that makes all state expenditures and contracts transparent. That would be a good place to start.
Unfortunately Perez understands that reform is needed but has no clue as to what meaningful and effective structural reform entails. The LA Times goes on to describe the specific type of reform that Perez would like to see, which is nothing more than “an end to the two-thirds vote requirement for passing budgets and raising taxes.” I hate to break this you, residents of California’s 44th district, but your representative’s idea of real structural reform involves one and only one thing – make it easier to raise taxes.
Even more troubling news is found just a few paragraphs down with the LA Times noting that Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) “have formed a California Economic Recovery Task Force to propose policies and legislation to help stimulate the economy.”
With the kind perverse priorities only big-government can bring, Michigan lawmakers are focusing their attention on what apparently is the new class of hardened criminals: people who drive interstate to buy cigarettes. Michigan has one of the highest tobacco taxes in the nation, combined with a regulatory framework seemingly adapted en bloc from a 1950's USSR policy handbook: it is illegal to possess cigarettes in Michigan without a Michigan tax sticker. In a turn of events that were blindingly obvious to everyone except Michigan lawmakers, taxable cigarette sales are down 30% since 2001, when the cigarette tax was $1.25 cents cheaper per pack, as people exercise the freedom they thought this country was founded upon by driving interstate. Rather than doing the sensible thing and lowering taxes, Michigan wants to jail its citizens. Under proposed penalties, individuals will be JAILED for possessing less than one carton of non-stamped tobacco. Freedom of trade is apparently a crime. Of course, despite a budgetary crisis, enough money is available to conduct undercover operations, and establish networks of informants submitting 'tips'.
"If you take away their right to be involved in the sale of tobacco that would be a significant deterrent…” said Lt. Judy Anderson, head of the Tobacco Tax Enforcement Team. Funny, I thought the point of rights was that the government couldn’t take them away. Thought we had something about inalienable rights written down somewhere. Guess I was wrong.
To take money from people thinking it will all be spent on helping persons who face cancer, or cancer research, and instead using it to lobby for a big-government agenda is dishonest and no better than fraud or theft.
These are NOT separate organizations. If you give money to ACS thinking it will only be used for charity purposes, think again! Money given by unsuspecting donors to ACS for charitable purposes is then secretly funneled through 'fees' to ACSAN. This is then used for political purposes.
Research by this blog reveals that since 2006, ACSCAN has received over $10 million from the ACS. Money that was meant to help families suffering with cancer. Money that was meant to go into life-saving research. Instead, our donations have gone to support big-government and high taxes.
We tried to look up further information on this political campaign on ACSAN at the section of their website viewed by the journalist who discovered this misuse of funds, but it seems to have since been shut down.
Unfortunately, true victims of this campaign are not the hundreds of thousands of Utah residents who will be pestered by these robocalls. Rather, they are the innocent families children and suffering the devastating effects of cancer missing out on much-needed funds.
New Jersey drivers will be hit with significant toll increases to help repay $8 billion in bonds: on the Turnpike, the cost of an average 22-mile trip will increase from $1.25 to $1.70, and one-way tolls on the Parkway will jump from 35 cents to 50 cents.
New Hampshirelawmakers have filed a dozen tax hike bills so far, targeting gasoline, tobacco, bottles, beer, income and even fireworks, as well as resurrecting the anti-small business, anti-family death tax.
In further confirmation of what we've been saying all along, Maryland's sales tax hike led to a plummet in sales, and between $800 million and $900 million of projected new tax revenue never materialized. The sales performance was the worst in almost two decades. Needless to say, we told you so.
Minnesota lawmakers are considering various changes in tax policy to cope with state overspending. One proposal (formerly made by Gov. Jesse Ventura) is to lower the sales tax rate by broadening the tax to include products and services that are currently exempt. Another, by Rep. Ann Lenczewski is to cut the corporate tax rate to 8.8%, stimulating business and investment. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has ruled out raising the increase tax.
With the exception of the principled stance of South Carolina's governor Mark Stanford, State Leaders are preparing a "Santa-Claus-comes-early list" as they prepare to beg President-elect Obama for Federal bailout funds to make up for $30 billion in gaps in their current budgets caused by massive overspending. Already some governors are salivating at the prospect of an almost endless supply of federal funds - Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell gone so far as to ask state agencies to think up a list of projects to build. State governments been models of mismanagement and reckless spending. If these bailouts go ahead, taxpayers will once again be betrayed.
