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Opinion: Are We Broke Yet? [VIDEO]
By not in system - AOL News"The nation is not broke, my friends," opines guerrilla filmmaker and amateur accountant Michael Moore. "Wisconsin is not broke. Saying that the country is broke is repeating a big lie." Relax, America, it turns out that all that talk about local, state and federal government being broke is just total B.S. or, as The New York Times puts it, "obfuscating nonsense ... a scare tactic employed for political ends." Moore is a bit skimpy on evidence, simply asserting that all we need to do to make things right is to shake down rich people who "have diverted ... wealth into a deep well that sits on ...
Tom Corbett Budget: 5 Painful Cuts in Pennsylvania
By Mary Phillips-Sandy - AOL NewsNext in line for a leaner, meaner budget: Pennsylvania. Republican Gov. Tom Corbett just unveiled his 2011-12 budget proposal for the commonwealth, and sure enough, the $27.3 billion plan contains a number of steep cuts. For the past two years, Pennsylvania has benefited from a $2.6 billion federal stimulus package; that money runs out in June, and the commonwealth is grappling with a $4 billion deficit. The proposed budget "resets Pennsylvania's fiscal clock to 2008-2009 levels," The Morning Call reports. And while it's largely in keeping with current conservative thinking about state ...
Opinion: Bankruptcy Is Not an Option
By not in system - AOL NewsMost American governors and mayors, whether Democratic or Republican, are faced with the daunting task of balancing their budgets after a long and deep recession and a sluggish economic recovery. And increasingly, they are considering declaring bankruptcy as a way out. Indeed, the B-word is being discussed in debt-strapped Detroit; in Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania; and in Alabama's most populous county, Jefferson. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan predicted that his city, the second-largest metropolis in the country, would declare bankruptcy by 2014 as a way out of its ...
Scott Walker's Budget Address: Light on Detail, but Plenty to Provoke Twitter
By Mary Phillips-Sandy - AOL NewsWisconsin Gov. Scott Walker just concluded a speech outlining his two-year budget plan. His remarks were light on specifics and contained few surprises. As expected, Walker called for deep cuts in education and local government funding, plus a $500 million cut in Medicaid spending. He also proposed a cap on property tax rates and the elimination of capital gains tax on investments in Wisconsin-based businesses. As for the ongoing protests in and around the statehouse, Walker sounded unconcerned. "I'm an optimist," he said. "I believe that after our budget repair bill passes, tempers will ...
Gov. Scott Walker's Budget Speech of Doom: What to Expect From the Wisconsin Address
By Mary Phillips-Sandy - AOL NewsAs protesters continue to criticize his proposal to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for public workers, Gov. Scott Walker this afternoon will reveal his full budget plan for Wisconsin. (Watch it live here.) He's said his goal is to help close a $3.6 billion deficit, and it's likely we'll hear about more controversial cuts during his speech. WISC-Madison reports that education funding will take a huge hit: Capitol watchers said that statewide school aid will likely see a cut of at least $900 million, which amounts to a loss of nearly $500 per pupil in the biennial budget's ...
Wisconsin Protests: Far From the Madison Crowd
By Robert and Donna Trussell - Politics DailyFollow the Trussell cartoons on Twitter at ChaosTheoryPD ...
Opinion: Wisconsin Exposes Deeper State Budget Crisis
By not in system - AOL NewsIn the wake of the recent protests in Wisconsin and now several other states, Americans are taking a much closer look at the grim budget realities facing our states today. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker correctly points out that his state's current budget trajectory is unsustainable. But he's not alone. The financial state of the states is not encouraging. Driven by irresponsible state and local spending growth, which outpaced private-sector growth by nearly 90 percent over the past decade, current budget deficits are estimated to exceed $100 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. Bad as they ...
Majority Opposes Limits on Collective Bargaining Power, Poll Finds
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyMost Americans say they are against any laws reducing the collective bargaining power of unionized civil service workers as a way to balance a state's budget, according to a new survey out Tuesday. The USA Today/Gallup poll comes as there's no end in sight to the week-long budget showdown between Wisconsin's public employee unions and Gov. Scott Walker. Pollsters found that 61 percent of respondents would oppose a law in their state similar to the one being floated by Walker that would reduce the ability of Wisconsin's state employee unions to bargain. Just 33 percent said they would support ...
New Jersey Budget: 5 Key Cuts Proposed by Gov. Christie
By Mary Phillips-Sandy - AOL NewsNew Jersey is but the latest state in the nation to face the music. Today Gov. Chris Christie unveiled his budget for the year ending June 30, 2012. Touting the state's efforts to close a projected $11 billion deficit, Christie declared a "new normal" in New Jersey: We will no longer blindly fund commitments that prior legislators and governors have made ... regardless of whether they were wise, and regardless of whether they yielded programs that even work. This year's budget ... is not a budget that funds each and every program at the same level as last year. Instead, we've done ...
States Shift to Deep Cuts for Workers to Balance Budgets
By Andrea Stone - AOL NewsDire. Drastic. Draconian. Call them what you will, but the measures being called for in state capitals to deal with record budget shortfalls are harsher than any in memory and have sparked angry protests from public employees most likely to feel the brunt of them. In Madison, Wis., police were dispatched today when every Democrat in the state Senate failed to show up for a vote on a bill to strip public workers of collective bargaining rights. Thousands of teachers and other state workers have rallied in and around the Capitol, some holding signs comparing the new governor, Republican Scott ...
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