States Counting on Stimulus Aid to Balance Budgets

[cal04]

As Lawmakers Reconcile Two Bills, Governors Root for House Version
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021003916.html?hpid=topnews

If the House version of the federal stimulus package becomes law, Ohio will save 300 youth services jobs, 130 more in addiction counseling and at least 20 positions for aides who provide a respite to relatives of Alzheimer's patients. It would mean keeping as many as 8,000 children in state-supported child care and saving 500 corrections jobs in a state where prisons are well over capacity.

If the Senate version triumphs, all of those jobs and subsidies -- plus many more -- will disappear, said Gov. Ted Strickland (D), who has joined with other governors to press members of Congress to back the more generous House approach.

The two chambers began to resolve their differences yesterday on how much money to send to states and other sticking points, after the Senate passed an $838 billion stimulus package. Senate and House leaders played down discrepancies between the two versions, saying that both would provide a boost to the economy and that an agreement on a final bill could come as soon as the end of the week.

But for states, the differences are potentially enormous. The House included $79 billion in direct aid to states, $40 billion more than the Senate, and governors are counting on that money to help balance budgets that are billions in the red.

"If the Senate version holds, there will be very deep cuts," Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) said, adding that the cost to the state and its 5.3 million residents would be $600 million. "We're going to see teachers and firefighters and police officers lose their jobs."

[2Design]

1. the higher ups in the states need to cut their boondoggles and their

salaries of the top 2% = they have already cut the ordinary people and parks and education, and everything else - they waste a lot of money and cut the wrong things

[jwirr]

2. A lot of the debt these states have run up are caused by two things.

First, when the economy tanks so do the revenues. Less tax money coming in. Second, when the economy tanks the unemployed turn to Medicaid for medical insurance and the states do not get enough money from the feds to cover this kind of situation. Neither one of these debts is necessarily the fault of state officials. This is the trickle down theory at work. Not enough is trickling down!