Budget cuts in NY, California....

[Hannah Bell]

New York state budget cuts target working class
By William Moore
20 December 2008

On Tuesday, New York State's Governor David Paterson unveiled a severe austerity budget plan aimed at closing the largest state deficit in history...

According to Paterson, "The world has changed and we have to adjust to it." Those "adjustments" are being demanded, however, of only one section of society. The proposal demands that the working class pay, while leaving the wealthy relatively unscathed. The thrust of his proposals involves increases in sales taxes and state fees combined with sharp reductions in essential services. A review of these proposals makes clear how severely these actions will impact the lives of working people and the poor....The cuts fall most heavily on education and medical care.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/budg-d20.shtml


California budget crisis triggers halt to infrastructure projects
By Dan Conway
20 December 2008

A panel of high-ranking California officials agreed unanimously Wednesday to cut funding to over 2000 infrastructure projects due to the intensifying state budget crisis. The abrupt funding cut-off arrives less than one week after the estimated state budget deficit was increased from $26 billion to $41.8 billion through July 2010. The funding cut-off will last until at least June 2009.

It is projected that the nation's most populous state may run out of funding for state projects altogether by next February, prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to announce that the remainder of state spending might be paid with IOU's for the first time since the Great Depression...
The state treasurer's office estimates that the funding cuts will cost the state over 200,000 jobs, most of them in construction and related industries that would have received state contracts as a result of the planned and ongoing infrastructure projects.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/cali-d20.shtml

[MichiganVote]

1. Welcome to Michigan......we tried to tell you it was all coming your way America.

[dflprincess]

2. In Minnesota as well

And, as a good Republican, Governor Timmy "The Tool" Pawlenty is going after healthcare and other programs that may benefit people who are the most vulnerable.

He is sticking to his "no new taxes" pledge.

[Cleita]

3. Our stupid Governor select, the Governator (no I don't consider him legitimate), can't

figure out that he's in charge of the sixth largest economy in the world, the State of California. Hmmm. I wonder what previous Governor Jerry Brown would have done?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown

In 1975, Brown obtained the repeal of the "depletion allowance," a tax break for the state's oil industry, despite the efforts of the lobbyist Joe Shell, a former intraparty rival to Richard M. Nixon. Brown aimed his fire at "big oil" in an era of popular environmental activism on the West Coast. The decisive vote against the allowance was cast in the California State Senate by the usually pro-business Republican Senator Robert S. Stevens. Shell claimed that Stevens had promised him that he would support keeping the allowance: "He had shaken my hand and told me he was with me." recalled Shell. Brown later rewarded Stevens with a judicial appointment, but Stevens was driven from the bench for making salacious telephone calls.<3> In 1977 Brown proposed and later passed a landmark tax incentive for home-owners installing solar panels.

btw Governor Brown left office as Governor with a surplus in the California Treasury.

[cabluedem]

6. He did so by cutting down on major road projects that we really needed and paid more for later when

he and Caltrans director Adrianna Gianterko left it all in the Dukes lap.

[keep_it_real]

4. Paterson does not propose a rise taxes on the wealthy - WHY?

Conspicuously, Paterson does not propose a rise taxes on the wealthy, despite a wide and growing income differential in the state. "I have ruled out taxes for the wealthy," he said Tuesday.

people making hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars are taxed at the same percentage rate as those with a poverty income. There have been populist-style proposals from some quarters for a "millionaires tax". Paterson, clearly indicating which class he represents, has repeatedly opposed such a tax.

the conception is that the wealthy as well as corporations and financial institutions would pick up stakes for lower tax havens if asked to share any of the state's fiscal burden.

I say bye, bye wealthy, if the wealthy can't afford or don't want to pay a little more tax then let them move to another state - good riddence to bad rubbish.

[Muttocracy]

5. well, don't you know, all those wealthy bankers in NYC

have taken SUCH good care of NY :sarcasm: