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Thread: California headed for the economic cliff ...

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default California headed for the economic cliff ...

    (snip)"The State’s revenues continued to deteriorate in April. Total General Fund revenues were down $1.89 billion (-16%) from the latest estimates found in the 2009-10 Budget Act.

    Personal income taxes were $1.06 billion below the estimate (-12.6%), corporate taxes were below the estimate by $831 million (-35.6%) and sales taxes lagged the estimate by $108 million (-19.9%).

    Some of April’s sales tax receipts were pushed into early May, but declining taxable transactions still drove sales tax receipts well below the Budget Act projection. While California’s sales tax rate went up April 1, revenues from the new rate will not be seen until May.

    Compared to April 2008, General Fund revenue in April 2009 was down $6.3 billion (-39%). The total for the three largest taxes was below 2008 levels by $6.3 billion (-40.3%). Sales taxes were $452 million lower (-50.9%) than last April, and personal income taxes were down $5.7 billion (-43.6%). Corporate taxes were $142 million below (-8.6%) April of 2008

    Sales tax collections year to date are short $327 million (-1.8%) from the 2009-10 Budget Act. Income taxes were $653 million lower (-1.7%) than expected, and corporate taxes were $788 million lower than expected (-9.5%).

    The State’s other revenue streams were $299 million below (-6.7%) the estimates. Because the 2009-10 Budget Act contained actual revenue through February 2009, these disparities only occurred in the months of March and April."(snip)


    and where the State is trying to slightly reduce gov't spending in light of the unexpectedly bad revenue news, Obama and the federal gov't are blocking them !



    (snip)"The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

    Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.

    The news comes as state lawmakers are already facing a severe cash crisis, with the state at risk of running out of money in July.

    The wages at issue involve workers who care for some 440,000 low-income disabled and elderly Californians. The workers, who collectively contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to the influential Service Employees International Union and the United Domestic Workers, will see the state's contribution to their wages cut from a maximum of $12.10 per hour to a maximum of $10.10. [ note this is only the fraction of their paycheck funded by the state of California - sic]

    The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.

    The cut was highly contentious during last winter's budget talks. Republican lawmakers insisted that the rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar state program, In Home Supportive Services, be scaled back significantly.

    Democrats fought major reductions in the program, which they say is a cost-effective alternative to nursing-home care, but ultimately compromised.

    Reversing the wage cut would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, meaning Republican support would be needed."(snip)

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    God/dess hockeybobby's Avatar
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    Default Re: California headed for the economic cliff ...

    On the other hand...maybe everything will be just fine! Haha.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: California headed for the economic cliff ...

    They definitely put themselves between a rock and a hard place. People talk about the greed on Wall Street - a lot of California needs to look at it's self in the mirror too.

  4. #4
    AudreyLeigh
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    Default Re: California headed for the economic cliff ...

    Please let me live in my cozy Cali bubble. This shit is depressing. When I don't watch/read the news things are great here. I mean for me, personally and my life things are dandy. They actually just hired 5 new teachers at my daughters school for next year- yet I hear about all these pink slips going out. They talk about having no money yet they're doing HUGE remodels to the freeways/roads/ramps here. It makes no freakin sense. Maybe there is a different California they talk about all this bad shit happening to but I'm not seeing it here.

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: California headed for the economic cliff ...

    They actually just hired 5 new teachers at my daughters school for next year- yet I hear about all these pink slips going out. They talk about having no money yet they're doing HUGE remodels to the freeways/roads/ramps here. It makes no freakin sense
    You can actually thank taxpayers in Montana, Texas, Missouri etc. for these new teaching positions and road repairs ... which are being funded by (anticipated) Obama stimulus dollars.

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    Senior Member Blackstone's Avatar
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    Default Re: California headed for the economic cliff ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    You can actually thank taxpayers in Montana, Texas, Missouri etc. for these new teaching positions and road repairs ... which are being funded by (anticipated) Obama stimulus dollars.
    Hooray, Texas?

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    Default Re: California headed for the economic cliff ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    You can actually thank taxpayers in Montana, Texas, Missouri etc. for these new teaching positions and road repairs ... which are being funded by (anticipated) Obama stimulus dollars.
    Wrong! We don't have to thank anyone in those states. Here's a table showing return on tax dollars per capita and CA gets less than any of those you mentioned. We're just finally getting a little payback.
    http://www.nemw.org/taxburd.htm


    The problem in CA is the inability to pass a budget without a 2/3 majority of each house. Couple that with state gov't that is content to let the public allocate spending through the initiative process, which turns the whole thing into a battle of who makes the best commercials, and toss in the inclusion of commercial property in prop 13, and Arnie's recision of one of the vehicle registration fees, and you got the Grand Canyon of budget gaps. And let's not mention the burden on the state to house thousands of illegal aliens convicted of crimes in the state prisons, for which we receive no federal dollars, despite the fact immigration is the federal govt's responsibility.

    But I still wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

  8. #8
    AudreyLeigh
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    Default Re: California headed for the economic cliff ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Dirty Ernie View Post

    But I still wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
    +1 on that one. Love me some Cali. Put the pool up yesterday. Yay for hot weather!

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