Sunday - November 06, 2005

A Better Solution

While you read the story below, keep this in mind: if Blanco were a Republican governor, there would be an outcry from every Liberal rooftop in the land over the “evil Neo-Cons” hurting the little people by cutting back social services. Jesse Jackson would be livid. As it is, the Democratic governor gets a pass. Not to put too fine a point on it but if I were governor, I would solve the shortfall in a very simple and straightforward manner: impose a one-year 20% salary reduction on every elected official in Louisiana, from the top down.

After all, the “little people” weren’t to blame for the SNAFU after Katrina. Why should they suffer with less funding for health-care and social services while their elected officials, who dropped the ball, get to continue drawing their six-figure salaries?

That’s the nice thing about a career in politics though ... you can totally screw up everything and still keep your job while passing along the pain to the voters who will continue to vote for you because by the next election they, in their ignorance, will have forgotten what a failure you were and will listen to all the lies and bulls**t you spout. Stoopid voters! Stoopid! Stoopid!

Blanco Slashes La. Spending by $431M
BATON ROUGE, La. (MYWAY NEWS)

Struggling with a huge post-hurricane deficit, Gov. Kathleen Blanco slashed state spending by $431 million Saturday, but even with the cuts, Louisiana still faces a budget shortfall of about half a billion dollars. The Democratic governor cut spending across state agencies, including social services, education and some lawmakers’ pet projects, but the deepest reductions were a $222 million hit to health care services and a $71 million cut in spending on public colleges.

“State government must work leaner but smarter than ever before,” Blanco said in a statement. Lawmakers could still decide to reverse her cuts when they meet in special session starting Sunday. “Everything is on the table,” Sen. Francis Heitmeier, a Democrat from New Orleans and chairman of the finance committee, said last week. “If we don’t agree with the cuts they make, we’ll zap em.”

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced taxpayers, forced businesses to shut down and ripped through state tax income expectations for the fiscal year that began July 1. Lawmakers had passed an $18.7 billion state budget earlier this year, but the state’s revenue projections plunged by $959 million after the hurricanes - a deficit that must be addressed because Louisiana’s constitution requires a balanced budget.

Blanco is backing a proposal to tap at least $153 million of the state’s “rainy day” fund and to borrow some cash to help deal with the rest of the shortfall. Both proposals would require approval from the Legislature during the special session. The state’s money problems are expected to be worse than the official deficit.

The deficit only takes into account the loss of revenue in the state’s general fund, mainly shrinking tax income. It doesn’t include lost revenue that individual agencies get from items such as license sales and penalties - projected to be hundreds of millions of dollars - or the loss of federal matching funds.

Making matters worse for the state, the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week estimated Louisiana’s bill for the federal hurricane recovery effort to be $3.7 billion. Blanco avoided cuts in some areas, including a college scholarship program, the military office spearheading hurricane recovery efforts, and road repair and construction money.

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/06/2005 at 09:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Outrageous •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner