From Top of the Ticket:
Not that many people outside of California care, but according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state faces a nearly $25 billion budget deficit.
As the rich man that he is, the former movie star favors everybody else helping out by making his state’s sales tax the No. 1 biggest, averaging 9.5%.
According to the nonpartisan legislative analyst, Mac Taylor, the state’s deficit will actually be closer to $28 billion in the next 20 months. That’s a lot of money, even at California prices; more money even than Barack Obama raised to get elected president.
Calif Democrat Speaker suggests US taxpayers help cover her state’s deficit with billions
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, has drawn up a partial solution anyway: Federal money.
Use some of those Wall Street taxpayer $700 billion bailout bucks on California!
Bass has urged the federal government to hand over the money to states — well, her state anyway — as well as those rich Wall Street banks in another coastal state. Why should New York get it all?
With federal money it won’t really cost anything, see? And she won’t have to explain voting for more taxes back home come next election. It’s the least Americans can do for the sunshiney state they love to hate.
“We think that with the state of California about to go over a cliff,” Bass says, “we ought to be part of the bailout as well. Can we have $5 billion or $10 billion?”
So now we have the ideas floating around that the federal government should take over partial ownership of the auto industry (a bailout that would “direct” automakers in the proper way to make automobiles that are compliant with the dictates of the green lobby), take over ownership of the credit and mortgage industries, and, by way of bailing out states whose misguided legislation has left them nearly insolvent, leaving those states beholden to the a partisan incarnation of the federal government that would leverage such largesse in ways that are easy to imagine — requiring all sorts of surrendering of state programs that run afoul of the administration’s extra-judicial requirements in exchange for federal assistance.
Prop 8? Sure, yhave it your way, Californians. Unless, that is, you want federal money to bail out your foundering economy. In which case, you’ll first have to surrender your “hate.”
And to think — all of this could be happening at taxpayer’s expense, included in which pool is money from taxpayers who adamantly oppose the kinds of programs that might be leveraged.
Spread the wealth indeed…
>>In which case, you’ll first have to surrender your “hate.â€Â
Fk the Kulaks. Useless eaters, all of them.
If we could get some kind of garauntee that Michael Moore and his buddies get kicked in the nuts for every $1000 we lend to California, I might consider this.
But we can afford to drop 10 billion into the shitter for a train system that’ll never be built! God DAMN, but these people are idiots.
“Hello, America. Its California. We’re broke and just squandered all of our money. Bail us out. And by the by, we’re still going to annoy the shit out of you and squander even more of it.”
“Aztlan, here we come, right back where we started from…”
I love California. All those comedians with their good jokes and stuff. This one’s a real knee-slapper.
California pays far more into the federal government than it gets back in federal government services.
Taxes from California and New York basically subsidize the rest of the states.
Maybe they should get a handout from Uncle Sugar for a change?
Meanwhile, Texas is trying to figure out what to do with the extra $10.7 billion they’ve got lying around this year. Suck it California.
Well then, Snuffy, shouldn’t CA and NY be pushing for LOWER TAXES then?
Snuffles, the rest of the country never asked for their damn money. They voted to do this to themselves. Don’t give me this martyr shit.
They wanted things set up this way in NY and CA. Eat it.
Detroit wants $10 billion, too. Assuming 1 million people (actual population probably below 900,000) that’s $10,000 per person.
What with all those hollywood types and their millions and kicking in their fair share… you’d think they wouldn’t be having these problems.
Snuffles, I watched perfectly good, smooth roads being repaved when I lived in California for a while. If they spend money that way (as “make-work” for connected contractors and unions), it’s their problem when the bill comes in.
The Dark Knight made something like ~$550 million. CA should go ask WB for the money.
sniffles/alphie is a fucking imbecile.
Has California ever considered cutting spending?
OH NOES!
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…
Palin’s stern veto pen at a time when the state is swimming in cash has helped establish her credentials as a fiscal conservative, economic analysts here say — although critics complain that she has failed to use the state’s unprecedented oil bounty to help tackle perennial issues of domestic violence, alcoholism and inadequate child healthcare.
“The surplus just seems to get bigger and bigger,” said Oliver Scott Goldsmith, head of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska. “The state is awash in oil dollars, and the projection is that for the next few years we will have significant surpluses over and above current levels — in the billions of dollars.”
Estimates of the budget surplus by early next year range from $5 billion to $9 billion, a huge amount in a state of 670,000 people. Spending it — or saving it for a day when oil is not so plentiful or expensive — is one of the central policy issues confronting the administration of Palin, the running mate of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
The governor is facing a dizzying array of requests from legislators to find a comfortable home for the money, including technology upgrades in the schools, new surgical wings in regional hospitals, fire stations and roads.
The speaker of the state House of Representatives has even talked of reviving plans for a massive hydropower dam on the Susitna River, under discussion since the 1970s but put aside because it was so stunningly expensive. The estimate 10 years ago was $5 billion.
Except for the $1,200-per-person fuel rebate, Palin has taken a firm stand against blowing through the surplus, socking away billions for education and underfunded state employee pensions.
In 2007, she used the governor’s line-item veto powers to cut $231 million in capital projects from the Legislature’s spending bills, and in May she rejected proposals totaling $250 million.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-surplus5-2008sep05,0,2756085.story
Taxes from California and New York basically subsidize the rest of the states.
“Can you give me sanctuary?
I must find a place to hide,
A place for me to hide.”
“The monk bought lunch.”
Also, Snufalphies arguement is that the two “richest” states should be bailed out by the not-as-rich ones. So, tax dollers from North Dakota and Deleware should flow to CA and NY?
That’s not really “progressive”, is it? And what if we apply that reasoning to individuals, he/she/it would immediatly accuse us of being greedy kapitalist Rethuglicans.
They spent $3 billion dollars on stem cells, these dirty socialist California retards did. I hope they’re tasty.
That’s not really “progressiveâ€Â, is it? And what if we apply that reasoning to individuals, he/she/it would immediatly accuse us of being greedy kapitalist Rethuglicans.
I believe the correct term is “selfish.”
Oh hey know what I heard? There’s oil right offshore where these beggars live. No, for real. Hmmm. This is one of those thought puzzles isn’t it?
Bullshit.
They spent $3 billion dollars on stem cells, these dirty socialist California gay retards did. I hope they’re tasty.
Fixed that for you!
There’s oil right offshore where these beggars live.
Yep. Hey, we’ll bribe them to drill! Half a billion for each 1,000 wellheads they start production on. Win-win.
Bullshit=rhetorical flourish
I’m still mulling over the word “is.”
Let’s just give CA to La Raza.
I just watched one of those “Flip this House” type of programs on HGTV the other night and a married couple, he a firefighter – her a prison officer, were looking to buy a $500,000 vacation home in the Lake Tahoe area. I don’t supposed there’s a correlation between two public servants being able to afford a 2nd home that would be beyond the reach of 95% of the residents of flyover land, and the fiscal struggles of the state. Naw. Fuck Naw. Couldn’t be.
Let’s just give CA to La Raza.
That ship has sailed!
I never get how any of these people on HGTV or TLC ever afford any of those McMansions, when I have a time trying to pay half of the rent for a two bedroom apt in the white trash part of town.
i propose a three stooges tax
a moe tax [i get to knuckle ur noggin]
a curly tax[ i fall to the ground and spin around break-dance style]
a shemp tax[ hemp…dude- did u know the[bong hit] constitution was
[bong hit] -exhale- written on….hemp….. no…. really..]
a curly joe tax[just-cuz he talks faggy]
no larry tax- cuz he be fine
Before we bail out California, and thus encourage more people to go live in the earthquake prone, wild-fire-storm prone, drought without water prone, mudslide prone, flood prone state, shouldn’t we first be building more houses and businesses below sea level in Louisiana?
Oh, wait…..
New York is in way worse shape than California. We don’t have initiative, referendum or recall powers. If you give a buck to California, you better be prepared to send three here.
Aren’t you glad you were fiscally responsible so you have some money to send us, you flyover country hicks? Spitzer blew ours on hookers, who returned the favor.
Why not have Hollywood taxed higher? And the “stars” who all bleat about liberalism – why not tax them at 50%? Funny, Alaska is doing well along with other conservative areas – it is just the liberal corrupt cesspools such as California, Detroit, Chicago, Massachusetts, New York. Most importantly though – why don’t the retool the Immigration Act of 1965 that Ted Kennedy swore would not change the face of America or create job losses. It did. We allow massive immigration from poor countries so we never get ahead. Lower the immigration numbers and halt and deport illegals. It is a big factor in the labor mess and the tax receipts going down (illegals dont pay them, poor new immigrants cant pay them).
You just might not be her second favorite choice of Protein, anymore.
Wht not just publish a Adobe Illustrator version of $20 bills that everyone can use to print their own subsidies at home or in the office. Jumpin’ bejeebus, have these people never heard of the Weimar Republic?
“Jumpin’ bejeebus, have these people never heard of the Weimar Republic?”
No, most of them have not. They attend those awesome public schools that we have, thanks to the NEA and federal Department of Education. I daresay few of them have ever even browsed The Constitution or can even pass a literacy exam.
Most of them DO have high self-esteem and can tell you who Jennifer Anniston is currently dating and what is the toughest level on Halo 3 and which type of rap ‘music’ best raises awareness of global warming.
You know, the important stuff!
“It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”
BushHitler. Geez, haven’t you guys been paying attention?
As a current inmate of Mexifornia, I can attest to the fact that there is nothing about this state that is good enough to cause me to want to stay here.
The douchebags in Sacramento basically have one job-pass a budget. They managed it, but three months late, just in time for the economic crash. So, within days, the new budget was toast. Now, after having wrangled all summer about tax increases, the goobernator (sic) is proposing them (he was against them previously, a good thing).
This whole state is run by nutjobs, and I don’t see any hope for redemption, absent some really selective virus showing up.
The weather is really nice. On the coast, anyway.
That’s about it.
I tried to tell ya a couple of weeks ago, Elect Obama and you will all be Californians.
Welcome home!
In 2007, she used the governor’s line-item veto powers to cut $231 million in capital projects from the Legislature’s spending bills, and in May she rejected proposals totaling $250 million
I’m thinking the bolded portion accounts for Alaskas fiscal success as much as anything.
The POTUS needs one of those.
i took a greyhound bus outta san diego one time
east on i -8
the last stop before we left cali was chers hometown
the bus driver said-“we’re gonna stop now-in chers hometown!”
what? i’m supposed to get of a greyhound bus to see chers house?
i don’t think so
off -i can’t spell
I say, Down With Big Film and Video!1!!11eleventy!111!!
We need a windfall profit tax on Hollywood…
We need to have a Hollywood employment surtax of 25%, immediately…
I say that Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and the other big Hollywood liberals follow Joey B’s advice and become more patriotic minded…Even if they move out of the state…
And the studios…Well as O! said about coal; We’ll bankrupt them…
It must be done, so that the illegal immigrants can keep getting their services for free…
Because of the fairness…