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The World Socialist Web Site reports
Three US states--New Jersey, Maine, and Illinois--with a combined population of 23 million people entered a new fiscal year [July 1] without a state budget, forcing widespread shutdowns of public services, state offices, and schools, as well as the closure of state parks on the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
In a fourth state, Connecticut, Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy ordered across-the-board spending cuts totaling $2.1 billion after the legislature failed to pass a balanced budget. Malloy's cuts include the elimination of summer youth employment programs and rental assistance for low-income families, as well as a reduction in education funding.
Six more states entered the new fiscal year without a final budget, but without, as yet, any significant shutdown of state services: Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Cuts are to be expected in all of these states if new budgets are not enacted by July 5, the first workday after the holiday.
[...] In a display of elitist arrogance, [Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey] spent the weekend with his family at an official residence in a state park that had otherwise been closed to the public by his own executive order.
[...] In Maine, Republican Governor Paul LePage ordered the first statewide shutdown of government services since 1991 after the legislature failed to bow to his demand that it adopt a new, two-year, $7 billion budget without any tax increases.
In a brazenly antidemocratic action, LePage and Democratic and Republican state legislators had already agreed that the new budget would repeal a measure approved last November by the votes of more than 357,000 people in a statewide referendum. The referendum imposed an additional three percent income tax on the wealthiest state residents--those who make more than $200,000 a year--to increase funding for public education.
Additional Coverage: ABCNews
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @05:38PM (4 children)
People who offered it did not know the actual cost of what they were offering, or in fact knew but didn't care (which is malicious). A lot of them just offered up this shit for votes. Now the outcome will be that you can't get blood from the stone, so the same people who sold their votes will now get diddly squat. Good riddance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @05:42PM (3 children)
Nah, the problem is they dipped into those accounts like it was their personal piggy bank and failed to live up to their funding obligations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:21PM (2 children)
That is definitely part of it, but this part is unsolvable. You simply cannot tell the government where you keep your money, because they will always find a way to steal it. To them if you have money lying around, then you don't really need it.
Regardless, the funds that were siphoned off, were only part of what was needed, the other part always came from taxes because they "estimated" there would always be more revenue in the future to use for this, so why pay for it back then? Any way you involve the government in retirement you will be screwed. And anytime you go private, you might get screwed there as well. It's simply no longer cynical to think there is no point in saving for retirement. You might think about getting a second property instead of 401K (IRAs will most definitely get poached in the future, and 401Ks will get hammered in some fashion), but then the wonderful comrades will find a way to penalize you for owning two homes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @08:59PM (1 child)
You've got good points, but your rhetoric needs help. The people you envision as the bogey men are not the ones to worry about. It is a range.
Also, taxes are a civic duty, this is not a new concept.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @02:50AM
... you're full of shit!