How Bad Is It?

This bad.

And this bad.  Actually, we will find out more today when the Emergency Board reports.  Revenues are expected to be down ... again. *

Layoffs, tax increases, revenue shortfalls.  And still a 2010 budget that increases spending 6.7% over what was spent in 2009 which is still not quite in balance.  Even while spending some $160 million in federal stimulus money, the legislature has not been able to come up with a balanced 2010 budget.  There is nothing left to "cut."  Which is what the legislators say they have been trying to do even as spending increases.

"I challenge anyone to come up with the $2 million in cuts," said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington.

So, of course, taxes must be raised.  On everything from music downloads, to estates, to capital gains.

Question: does anyone really believe that there are a lot of gains out there to tax?  Anyone reporting large capital gains for 2008 ought to be hired immediately by Montpelier and put in charge of the state's finances.

Another question: if the state is going to pay its bills on the wages of human weakness – through various "sin taxes" on tobacco, alcohol, and such – should it also be in the business of promoting gambling which causes much human misery?  "Play responsibly," indeed.

And, a final question.  In all of this frantic negotiation over taxing and spending has there been any discussion or reflection on the question of economic growth.  Of how we might actually get businesses to come here and hire people?  There has been the usual talk of "green jobs" which will appear, that talk has it, once we start making electricity more expensive. 

The scene in Montpelier is one of business as usual.  Something that our state cannot afford – literally – in these unusual and dangerous times.

* Well, now we know.  And the news is, "breathtakingly" bad.

Comments

[Chris Campion]

I have a suggestion for our legislators. Rather than turn over every rock in Vermont looking for tax revenues (taxes that willh only dampen economic growth), how about spending your limited annual legislative hours on reforming the permitting process so Vermonters will actually have jobs to look forward to when they wake up in the morning. I would feel that the legislature is actually adding some value to the state's disastrous economy if they took actual, concrete steps to improving it. They have failed to do that. They have failed to live up to their sworn responsibilities to Vermonters. We are reaping what's been sown of three decades of anti-growth legislation that has pushed businesses and jobs out of this state.

Profits are not evil. Profits mean people have jobs. Profits mean paychecks. Profits mean education dollars. Profits mean mortgages are paid. Profits are our friend - so why don't our legislators look to help businesses generate some?

Do our elected public servants want Vermonters to either a) starve, or b) go on the dole? Based on their actions, those are the only two options they seem to want to leave us. Let's remember that come election time.

[martin harris]

My answer to Rep. Sears would be "raise the overall p/t ratio by an average of 1 student per class" from 12 to 13. That would reduce the direct in-classroom educational cost, which is presently $60MM per grade level (for 13 grades that equals $780MM, which in turn is 60% of the total $1.3B school cost). The $60MM per grade with an average class size of 12 (actually it's closer to 11) equals $5MM per student, so adding 1 student would save $5MM by reducing teacher numbers through a RIF, legal under all NEA contracts.
Sears knows all the above, but pretends he doesn't, because he wants the teacher vote.
Martin Harris

"I challenge anyone to come up with the $2 million in cuts," said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington.

[the Gooch]

Can we get month-by-month accounts of receipts in Montpelier? I'd like to see how they're faring vis-a-vis the staggering drop in receipts in Washington:

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/04/22/when-will-the-press-catch-on-to-uncle-sams-collections-meltdown/trackback/

[Jerry Coleman]

If you listened to Tom Pelham on WDEV this morn he had all kinds of suggestions for cuts. Of course they take a little more than a 6th grader to figure out.!!! Maybe that's our problem.

[Jim Mulligan]

I have observed the parade for decades Federally & Statewide
and despaired long ago. But, on the Green Mountain side of the ledger I am always taken by the
$s din that closes the Season
rather than opens it. It brings
to mind my Lone Ranger radio days -
"Who was that masked man?"

Like Diogenes with or without a lantern let me pose my simple
perennial query - Has anyone ever seen a P&L and Balance Sheet?

The "Blame Game" is in it's final
chapter.

[Independent Vermonter]

The political left in this state is doing their standard job of pleading poverty and claiming they've "cut" everything but the most essential services for the most vulnerable Vermonters.

Of course, that means that the "conservation" coalition of trust-funders, no-growthers, "preservation" types, etc. must be considered as "vulnerable" as those needing assistance with housing, food, or health care. How else to explain why the Vermont Housing Conservation Board hasn't been nicked yet? Or why there's still a well-orchestrated letter writing campaign to support conservation funding still ongoing?

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090418/OPINION02/904180308/1037/OPINION02

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/opinion/ci_12145708

These advocates would have us believe that buying conservation easements to farmland that is in virtually no danger of being developed in the present economic climate is "essential" and somehow creates jobs or helps farmers.

And nobody in the media is calling them out on this sham.