California Screamin' - the big fiscal mess

[marmar]

LA Times: California controller to suspend tax refunds, welfare checks
John Chiang announces that his office will suspend $3.7 billion in payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, as a result of the state's cash crisis. Student grants are also affected.

By Evan Halper
11:24 AM PST, January 16, 2009


Reporting from Sacramento -- State Controller John Chiang announced today that his office would suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, as a result of the state's cash crisis.

Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.

The controller said the suspended payments could be rolled into IOUs if California still lacked sufficient cash to pay its bills come March or April.

"I take this action with great reluctance," Chiang said at a news conference in his office. But he said that without action to close the deficit, "there is no way to make it through February unscathed."

The payments to be frozen include nearly $2 billion in tax refunds; $300 million in cash grants for needy families and the aged, blind and disabled; and $13 million in grants for college students.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget17-2009jan17,0,4472460.story

[my2sense]

1. This is terrible

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Yep, I'm a californian. It's a disaster.

[proud patriot]

3. It's really really bad

the school cuts are scary ..

[ananda]

4. Isn't this why Gray Davis was recalled?

Darrell Issa must be so pleased. ....

[Betty]

5. so if you don't get your refund

does that mean you can deduct it from your next tax payment? (Plus interest?)

[Liberty Belle]

6. So why are legislators still getting their paychecks?

Those should be the first payments halted until this is resolved.

[NYC_SKP]

7. That's crazy talk!

Or so they would tell you.

Funny how that never occurs to them, none of them.

[proud patriot]

8. I like the way you think

:thumbsup:

[my2sense]

9. Excellent idea!

[Hannah Bell]

10. so the needy, aged, disabled & blind should starve, or what?

imo, this is no accident.

[yorgatron]

11. what we gotta do is repeal Ahnold's stupid auto registration fee cut

and then rewrite Prop 13 so the corporate tax loophole is removed.
oh yeah,we need corporations to start paying their taxes,instead of hiding all their money offshore,that would help a bunch.

[Hannah Bell]

12. yep. pretty simple, unless you're a billionaire, in which case, the logical thing is to starve the

"undeserving".

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Almost immpossible to do

And its not just Prop 13, its the super majority required by the Gann Initiative.

As for me, I pay estimated with minimal withholding. At this point I think CA owes me a $5 refund. I know that not everyone can do that and the state counts on the free loan, but if I went with the regular tables, I would be seriously screwed.

[K Gardner]

16. That was a smart move. n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

28. Its incredibly easy to do. Tax program of your choice and a PC

In these times when every penny counts, spending an a couple of hours a quarter looking at your tax liabilities is a good idea.

[AlCzervik]

18. you can't even talk about prop 13 in this state without some accusing you of wanting

the elderly to be homeless. I'm sure Howard Jarvis is in hell with a red hot poker up his butt.

[annm4peace]

15. Yes they will.

[JCMach1]

14. Realistic property tax rate hikes would solve the problem in a heartbeat

of course, that can't happen... :(

[Gregorian]

24. I've been wondering just how people are paying 6 grand a year in prop taxes.

A hike? I have been wanting to hear about how people are even handling property tax on all of these homes that are worth a million. And that's just about every home in the state. Not really. But what is the median value of a home in California? A lot.

A hike couldn't be tolerated. In fact I have been wondering just how much money these counties must be rolling in with all of these huge taxes coming in.

[mnhtnbb]

26. 6 grand? My brother bought a house in Hillsborough two years ago

and his property taxes are 24 grand!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

30. The key is never to transfer title of the property

That is why the commercial building taxes are so low. They change hands much less frequently than residential property

[Hubert Flottz]

17. You mean Arnold never fixed everything like he promised?

Recall him.

[spanone]

19. another fabulous republican fiscal plan

:sarcasm:

[lonestarnot]

20. Who is going to pay for all of the riot damage?

[dysfunctional press]

21. can people use those iou's to pay their bills and buy groceries...?

:shrug:

answer: :rofl:

[BR_Parkway]

22. How come misery is the only thing that actually trickles down?

[tblue37]

23. As California goes, so goes the nation eventually. That is a generally applicable rule. nt

[glitch]

25. Looks like that $9 Billion lawsuit Arnold settled for pennies on the dollar with Texas energy cons

would come in handy right about now. Asshole.

[nini]

27. This started with Prop 13 and has been snowballing

The current economic woes around the country and world have put us in the meltdown anti Prop 13 folks knew would happen. God forbid we tax the rich in this state. fuckers

BUT businesses and the rich got their way because they hate paying their property taxes. If we'd repeal this on businesses only it would help dramatically.

What a joke - My neighbor pays 1/6th of what I do in property taxes simply because she's lived there a long time. Talk about an unfair tax scale.

Let me add - I don't think grandma needs to be thrown out of her house with insanely high taxes either - however, we need to figure out something to alleviate this problem.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

29. Gann iniative is equally important.

and killed some of the loopholes after Prop 13.

http://www.caltax.org/member/digest/July2000/jul00-9.htm is a good explanation I found in Google.

[lies and propaganda]

31. my girlfriends parents just got a Ca Gov check.....

IT BOUNCED