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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: 2) by bradley13 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @06:13PM (2 children)
"Just more proof the Capitalist pigs running most of the country"
It's not "capitalist pigs" who are the problem. We are specifically talking about governments that have spent themselves to bankruptcy.
In capitalism, if a company overspends, it goes bankrupt and gets replaced by a competitor. If your local government overspends, they raise taxes and take it out of your wallet. When that doesn't work anymore, they just refuse to honor their commitments, but the government - along with essentially all of the individual politicians and high level bureaucrats that make up the government - remain in place and keep collecting their paychecks.
Heck, governor Christie even keeps going to the beach. Gets caught in outright lies ("I didn't get any sun today") and doesn't have to give a shit.
No, it's not capitalism that's the problem. What do you call an overspending, out-of-control government? Socialism?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tfried on Wednesday July 05 2017, @06:52PM
Sigh. It's not so hard to keep these terms apart, is it?
1) Overspending or budget deficits is a wide-spread problem in governments of every color.
2) Once deficits hit a limit, there are two distinct responses: Capitalist governments will cut public spending, but not increase taxes (and occasionally, cut taxes, arguing that this will spark the economy, and generate more income in the long run). Socialist governments will increase taxes, typically on the high income end, first, but not cut spending (and occasionally, increase spending, arguing that this will spark the economy, and generate more income in the long run).
There are reasons to be sceptical of either approach, and you will not have difficulty finding examples of either approach yielding terrible results, but the one(s) TFA is reporting on is clearly of the capitalist side.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:19PM
Maybe someone needs to re-plug governor Christie into the control system feedback loop. The one where if you mismanage your job it hurts the paycheck and the boss tells you to do more hours, perhaps reading up on economy.
Suppose water supply to that state park closed to the public by his own executive order went dry because "budget deficit", electricity bzz bzz oops no money for repair man, the sewer got blocked because no one around to fix it, the access road however needed some urgent repair but the workers went home because check bounced and of course the fiber connection somehow got crushed under some road equipment with no one on call.