State Budget Shortfalls, SFY2009

State Budget Shortfalls, SFY2009
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparecat.jsp?cat=4

	Facing a Budget Gap?	Gap Before Budget Adopted (in millions)	Additional Mid-Year Gap (in millions)	Additional Gap as % of FY2009 General Fund	Total Gap (in millions)	Total Gap as % of FY2009 General Fund
	Facing a Budget Gap?	Gap Before Budget Adopted (in millions)	Additional Mid-Year Gap (in millions)	Additional Gap as % of FY2009 General Fund	Total Gap (in millions)	Total Gap as % of FY2009 General Fund
United States	44+DC	$47,600	$51,100	10.5%	$98,600	14.9%
Alabama	Yes	$784	$1,100	12.7%	$1,800	22.2%
Alaska	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$360	6.8%	$360	6.8%
Arizona	Yes 1	$1,900	$1,600	15.9%	$3,500	34.8%
Arkansas	Yes	$107	No mid-year gap	NA	$107	2.4%
California	Yes	$22,200	$13,700	13.6%	$35,900	35.5%
Colorado	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$604	7.7%	$604	7.7%
Connecticut	Yes	$150	$1,700	10.1%	$1,900	11.0%
Delaware	Yes	$217	$226	6.2%	$443	12.2%
District of Columbia	Yes	$96	$258	4.1%	$354	5.6%
Florida	Yes	$3,400	$2,300	9.0%	$5,700	22.2%
Georgia	Yes 1	$245	$2,200	10.3%	$2,400	11.5%
Hawaii	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$232	4.0%	$232	4.0%
Idaho	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$217	7.4%	$131	7.4%
Illinois	Yes	$1,800	$4,200	14.8%	$8,000	21.1%
Indiana	Yes	NA	$1,100	8.0%	$1,100	8.0%
Iowa	Yes	$350	$134	2.1%	$484	7.6%
Kansas	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$185	2.9%	$185	2.9%
Kentucky	Yes	$266	$456	4.9%	$722	7.8%
Louisiana	Yes	NA	$341	3.7%	$341	3.7%
Maine	Yes	$124	$140	4.6%	$265	8.6%
Maryland	Yes	$808	$691	4.6%	$1,500	10.0%
Massachusetts	Yes	$1,200	$2,400	8.4%	$3,600	12.7%
Michigan	Yes	$472	$200	0.9%	$672	2.9%
Minnesota	Yes	$935	$426	2.5%	$1,400	7.9%
Mississippi	Yes 1	$90	$175	3.4%	$265	5.2%
Missouri	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$342	3.8%	$342	3.8%
Montana	No	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Nebraska	No	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Nevada	Yes	$898	$536	7.3%	$1,400	19.6%
New Hampshire	Yes	$200	$50	1.6%	$250	8.0%
New Jersey	Yes 1	$2,500	$2,100	6.5%	$4,600	14.2%
New Mexico	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$454	7.5%	$454	7.5%
New York	Yes	$4,900	$1,700	3.0%	$6,400	11.7%
North Carolina	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$2,000	9.3%	$2,000	9.3%
North Dakota	No	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Ohio	Yes 1	$733	$1,200	4.2%	$1,900	6.8%
Oklahoma	Yes	$114	No mid-year gap	NA	$114	1.7%
Oregon	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$442	6.6%	$442	6.6%
Pennsylvania	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$2,300	8.1%	$2,300	8.1%
Rhode Island	Yes	$430	$372	11.4%	$802	24.5%
South Carolina	Yes	$250	$871	12.7%	$1,100	16.3%
South Dakota	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$27	2.2%	$27	2.2%
Tennessee	Yes 1	$468	$884	7.8%	$1,400	12.0%
Texas	No	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Utah	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$620	10.4%	$620	10.4%
Vermont	Yes	$59	$66	5.4%	$125	10.3%
Virginia	Yes	$1,200	$1,100	6.7%	$2,300	13.8%
Washington	Yes	No pre-existing gap	$509	3.4%	$509	3.4%
West Virginia	No	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Wisconsin	Yes	$652	$594	4.2%	$1,200	8.8%
Wyoming	No	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

Notes:	This table describes which states are facing shortfalls or budget gaps where revenues will fall short of the amount needed to fund current services for state fiscal year 2009. The additional mid-year gap represents shortfalls that states are facing in addition to the shortfalls faced at the time states adopted their SFY2009 budgets. Data are as of February 10, 2009.
Sources:	"State Budget Troubles Worsen," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February 10, 2009. Available at: http://www.cbpp.org/9-8-08sfp.htm
Definitions:	NA: Not applicable.

Britain is facing its worst financial crisis for more than a century

Doom and gloom are not new these days, but the message in this was very severe, and it being delivered by a high cabinet member who was former chief advisor to the treasury. Starts off by saying that this will be worse than the 30s and last longer than a decade. Interested me to see that during the 30s some towns had 70% unemployment and those are being considered the good ole days. yikes.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/pol....

'This is the worst recession for over 100 years'

Ed Balls, the PM's closest ally, warns that downturn is ferocious and says impact will last 15 years

By Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor, and Sean O'Grady, Economics Editor

Tuesday, 10 February 2009

Britain is facing its worst financial crisis for more than a century, surpassing even the Great Depression of the 1930s, one of Gordon Brown's most senior ministers and confidants has admitted.

In an extraordinary admission about the severity of the economic downturn, Ed Balls even predicted that its effects would still be felt 15 years from now. The Schools Secretary's comments carry added weight because he is a former chief economic adviser to the Treasury and regarded as one of the Prime Ministers's closest allies.

Mr Balls said yesterday: "The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years, as it will turn out."

He warned that events worldwide were moving at a "speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before" and banks were losing cash on a "scale that nobody believed possible".

The minister stunned his audience at a Labour conference in Yorkshire by forecasting that times could be tougher than in the depression of the 1930s, when male unemployment in some cities reached 70 per cent. He also appeared to hint that the recession could play into the hands of the far right.

"The economy is going to define our politics in this region and in Britain in the next year, the next five years, the next 10 and even the next 15 years," Mr Balls said. "These are seismic events that are going to change the political landscape. I think this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s, and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy."

Philip Hammond, the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said Mr Balls's predictions were "a staggering and very worrying admission from a cabinet minister and Gordon Brown's closest ally in the Treasury over the past 10 years". He added: "We are being told that not only are we facing the worst recession in 100 years, but that it will last for over a decade – far longer than Treasury forecasts predict."

The minister's comments came as the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, admitted the global economy was "seeing the most difficult economic conditions for generations". Writing in today's Independent, Mr Darling said his plans for shoring up Britain's finances included "measures to insure against extreme losses" as well as separating out impaired assets into a "parallel financial vehicle". Unemployment figures out tomorrow are expected to show the number of people out of work has passed two million. The Bank of England's quarterly inflation report, also released tomorrow, is expected to include a gloomy forecast for economic growth.

Yesterday, the Financial Services Authority warned that the recession "may be deeper and more prolonged than expected", adding that the global financial system had "suffered its greatest crisis in more than 70 years".

Speaking to Labour activists in Sheffield, Mr Balls conceded that the Government must share some of the blame because it had failed properly to control the banks. But he accused the Tories of blocking Labour's attempts to tighten financial rules.

He said: "People are quite right to say that financial regulation wasn't tough enough in Britain and around the world, that regulators misunderstood and did not see the nature of the risks of the dangers being run in our financial institutions – absolutely right."

The other great depressions

*Long Depression, 1873–96

Precipitated by the "panic of 1873" crisis on Wall Street and a severe outbreak of equine flu (Karl Benz's first automobile did not chug on to the scene until 1886), it was remarkable for its longevity as well as its global reach. In Britain, it was the rural south rather than the rich cities of the north that suffered. The UK ceased to be a nation that relied in any way on farming for its livelihood.

*Great Depression, 1930s

The "Hungry Thirties" were rough on many, at a time when welfare systems were rudimentary. The worst period was from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to about 1932, but in places such as Jarrow, the unemployment rate hardly dipped below 50 per cent until the economy was mobilised in 1940. However, for many in the south and for the middle classes, the times were relatively prosperous.

2009-02-12 10:22:17

Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash

Published - Feb 11 2009 06:16PM EST

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM and MARYCLAIRE DALE - Associated Press Writers

For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

"I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.

The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles' records expunged.

Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.

Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.

The judges are scheduled to plead guilty to fraud Thursday in federal court. Their plea agreements call for sentences of more than seven years behind bars.

Ciavarella, 58, who presided over Luzerne County's juvenile court for 12 years, acknowledged last week in a letter to his former colleagues, "I have disgraced my judgeship. My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame." Ciavarella, though, has denied he got kickbacks for sending youths to prison.

Conahan, 56, has remained silent about the case.

Many Pennsylvania counties contract with privately run juvenile detention centers, paying them either a fixed overall fee or a certain amount per youth, per day.

In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.

One of the contracts _ a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million _ was later canceled by the county as exorbitant.

The judges are accused of taking payoffs between 2003 and 2006.

Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June. His attorney, Mark Sheppard, said his client was the victim of an extortion scheme.

"Bob Powell never solicited a nickel from these judges and really was a victim of their demands," he said. "These judges made it very plain to Mr. Powell that he was going to be required to pay certain monies."

For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was ridiculously harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters' constitutional rights. Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.

The criminal charges confirmed the advocacy groups' worst suspicions and have called into question all the sentences he pronounced.

Hillary Transue did not have an attorney, nor was she told of her right to one, when she appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom in 2007 for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal.

Her mother, Laurene Transue, worked for 16 years in the child services department of another county and said she was certain Hillary would get a slap on the wrist. Instead, Ciavarella sentenced her to three months; she got out after a month, with help from a lawyer.

"I felt so disgraced for a while, like, what do people think of me now?" said Hillary, now 17 and a high school senior who plans to become an English teacher.

Laurene Transue said Ciavarella "was playing God. And not only was he doing that, he was getting money for it. He was betraying the trust put in him to do what is best for children."

Kurt Kruger, now 22, had never been in trouble with the law until the day police accused him of acting as a lookout while his friend shoplifted less than $200 worth of DVDs from Wal-Mart. He said he didn't know his friend was going to steal anything.

Kruger pleaded guilty before Ciavarella and spent three days in a company-run juvenile detention center, plus four months at a youth wilderness camp run by a different operator.

"Never in a million years did I think that I would actually get sent away. I was completely destroyed," said Kruger, who later dropped out of school. He said he wants to get his record expunged, earn his high school equivalency diploma and go to college.

"I got a raw deal, and yeah, it's not fair," he said, "but now it's 100 times bigger than me."

India's biggest discount retailer said hundreds of its stores were attacked over the weekend

India's biggest discount retailer said hundreds of its stores were attacked over the weekend, after it failed to pay its security guards because of liquidity troubles. The attack points to the potential socio-economic implications of the credit crisis hitting India's ailing retail industry.

Subhiksha Trading Services said about 600 of its discount food stores and warehouses were vandalised across the country, after it admitted it was on the verge of collapse as it had "mucked up on not raising equity".

R Subramaniam, founder and managing director of the group said: "At a time when our business is at a standstill ...the company seems unable to protect its properties as, due to non-payments to security agencies and staff, the properties have become vulnerable targets for looters".

Subhiksha, which expanded tenfold to 1,655 stores in two years, generating $470m in revenue, had been in trouble for months as it failed to pay suppliers and employees after its banks refused to lend it money. It was unclear on Sunday whether laid-off workers were responsible for the attacks.

Troubles at the chain underline the broader difficulties Indian retailers are facing because of a lack of credit, a slowing economy and high property prices - rents in the Delhi and Mumbai areas are among the highest in Asia.

Foodland Fresh, a smaller Mumbai-based retail chain, announced the closure of 39 of its 42 stores across the city last week in another sign of toughening economic conditions.

Key sectors of the Indian economy shed more than half a million jobs in the final three months of last year. Analysts predict that gross domestic product growth will fall well below 5 per cent this year, firmly ending India's double-digit growth hopes.

Since India's Retailers Association has cut the sector's growth outlook from 30-35 per cent to 15-20 per cent, several leading retailers, including Reliance [Get Quote] and Argos, have announced plans to shut stores or curtail expansion.

Sandeep Mulik and Priyamvada Balaji, retail analysts at Fitch Ratings said: "Unlike in the past, resource optimisation and revaluating store viability will remain key priorities in 2009, which could lead to store closures and a scale back in expansion activities".

Reliance is considering cutting its wholesale team and closing 25 of its 590 Reliance Fresh flagship grocery stores.

The group owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is also falling behind with its $6bn investment in a "farm-to-fork" supply chain project, launched in 2006, which was meant to change radically India's inefficient and mainly unorganised retail sector.

Argos, the UK online and catalogue retailer, pulled out of India last month after only two years.

The company said the Indian venture, a franchise arrangement with India's Shopper's Stop and HyperCITY retail groups, had been abandoned after failing to meet targets.

Kishore Biyani, the owner of Food Bazaar, recently said he had decided to rethink its retail strategy as the company would now be opening smaller stores instead of the typical hypermarkets.

Aditya Birla Retail, which controls 670 supermarkets and two hypermarkets, has recently told investors that it would revise its expansion plan and delay the opening of some of its stores.

Thomas Varghese, chief executive, said "We have not scaled back our investment plans but our expansion could get delayed by a few months".

My toilet is flooding the laundry room again. 2nd time in a couple weeks.

I've left messages for the manager at 11:20 pm for them to check on this clog in the laundry room first thing in the morning (7 AM) because everybody in the building is gonna take their morning showers and toilet breaks and sewage water is gonna pour out of the floor drain & flood like crazy of raw sewage. I may have to call the police or fire dept if the water is not shut off since I'm not allowed to do that even to save my own floor from flooding, although I should.
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UPDATE 6 AM: Somebody else called the maintenance person at 2 am and the plumber guy was here by 5:30 am. He ran a snake thru an outside vent-hole towards the city sewer. He hit something about 50 feet in and that started the unclogging process. He continued to snake to about 125 feet just to be sure. I'm sure he doesn't know where the city sewer actually begins (because he told me so) and it is almost a certainty it is far more than 125 feet away. So we'll see how long this state of unflood exists before he's called back, he could be back in a few hours once everyone has taken their showers and flushed their toilets and washed their dishes.

Isn't this how SARS is transmitted? I've got a persistent cough I don't wanna get quarantined for.

jojotaxpayer hates government and those it serves

from a local forum posting, which I NEVER engage in...
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Ontario Sued by ACLU newsman38 newsman38
Senior Member


Registered: 03/21/01
Posts: 2164 Schuyler gears up for ACLU lawsuit, Four other counties also face action

Involvement in a lawsuit brought by the New York office of the American Civil Liberties Union will probably last for years and the cost will be high, County Attorney James Coleman told legislators Wednesday.

This first round of expenses is minor, Coleman said, explaining they are for items such as travel costs and stenographers.

"The big expenses in a trial like this aren't even on the horizon" and could be in the millions, Coleman said.

In November 2007, the New York ACLU filed a lawsuit against Schuyler and four other counties - Washington, Suffolk, Onondaga and Ontario - claiming that the counties and the state were not providing adequate legal services for the poor.

By Glenda Gephart • Correspondent • February 5, 2009
Elmira Star Gazette
Top

[Re: newsman38] jojotaxpayer jojotaxpayer
Senior Member


Registered: 04/04/08
Posts: 796
Loc: Ontario County Yeah fight for the poor, you ACLU morons, the ones too lazy to get a job at the expense of those of us who actually work.
Top

	#975944 - Yesterday at 12:26 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: jojotaxpayer] Sovereign King Sovereign King Senior Member Registered: 05/29/08 Posts: 3208 Loc: Auditioning on Broadway You have to be one of the biggest idiots on this forum! So justice for all shouldn't apply to the poor? I hope you get get eaten by a bear the next time you go hunting, redneck... _________________________ Top

	#975953 - Yesterday at 01:03 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: Sovereign King] jojotaxpayer jojotaxpayer Senior Member Registered: 04/04/08 Posts: 796 Loc: Ontario County Me the biggest idiot, I think not, at best I'm runner up to you. No, free justice shouldn't apply to the majority on welfare like yourself. Get a job and pay for it yourself. Quit sponging off of the system. Top

	#975961 - Yesterday at 01:21 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: jojotaxpayer] Sovereign King Sovereign King Senior Member Registered: 05/29/08 Posts: 3208 Loc: Auditioning on Broadway Originally Posted By: jojotaxpayer Me the biggest idiot, I think not, at best I'm runner up to you. Wow! Good comeback! Did your mom write it for you in the 3rd grade? _________________________ Top

	#976055 - Yesterday at 06:52 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: jojotaxpayer] Sovereign King Sovereign King Senior Member Registered: 05/29/08 Posts: 3208 Loc: Auditioning on Broadway Originally Posted By: jojotaxpayer No, free justice shouldn't apply to the majority on welfare like yourself. Get a job and pay for it yourself. Quit sponging off of the system. You are one of the biggest GPD (police department) bashers, basing them whenever you can whether it fits in the conversation or not. I cannot wait to the day when the GPD find out who you are and harass you every time you leave the house. Hopefully they will slap a rediculous charge on you every time you look left or right. Maybe you will be forced to spend what little you have horded away, or sell that house in Florida you "earned" by being a slave to a job for 30-40 years because of legal fee's. Then if there is a god they would slap such a rediculous felony on you and there will be no public defender for you... Forcing you to go away for a few years and become someones girlfriend... You seem like such a awful person! You complain about those on welfare like they are scum but in reality you seem to be the scum of the earth. What's the matter? Working such an awful job your entire life make you such a bitter person you feel no one deserves help unless they work? You had to hold a ****ty your entire life, they should too, right? I'd be careful, karma has a way of taking care of people like you. You really are dumb scum, because there is a flaw with what you say... Lets forget about our justice system saying everyone gets a fair trial and legal defense whether they can afford it or not. Whether they sit and don't work, that you blindly feel is everyone using a public defender, or works two jobs to support his/her family and cannot afford a lawyer. If you simply deny council to someone, and only let those with money who can pay for a lawyer have one, those without a lawyer will take terrible deals whether they guilty or not, larger numbers will end up in jail/prison. Who do you think will end up paying for that, jojothetaxpayer? _________________________ Top

	#976124 - Yesterday at 10:12 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: Sovereign King] caseyseneca caseyseneca Member Registered: 05/17/08 Posts: 210 Loc: Ontario County, NY I feel that, in this economic climate, it is irresponsible of the ACLU to be bringing a lawsuit that will potentially cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars and tie up courts for years. I am not arguing whether the lawsuit has merit or not. What I do think they should do is get away from the lawsuit mentality and start being constructive and pro-active on behalf of those they seek to represent. Instead of suing, work with the government officials responsible in each county, set up a citizen watchdog group and find ways to improve legal representation for those who legitimately deserve and need it. The money such lawsuits cost could much better be spent in positive ways than in suing everybody in sight and causing more hardship. _________________________ OntarioSenior Top

	#976132 - Yesterday at 11:02 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: Sovereign King] jojotaxpayer jojotaxpayer Senior Member Registered: 04/04/08 Posts: 796 Loc: Ontario County GPD deserves a bashing, they have f-up so many cases in the last ten years they should all be fired. You are a yates county wood chuck, you have your head up your @$$. No I don't like welfare sponging off of my hard earned money, get a job you welfare sponging moron. We all know you don't have a job. No, I won't sell my house in flordia to pay for your lazy @$$ Top

	#976133 - Yesterday at 11:04 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: Sovereign King] threeputt threeputt Senior Member Registered: 12/08/01 Posts: 1511 Loc: Waterloo Unfortunately, there are a lot of Yo Yo's, er Jojo's out there. Incredibly selfish people who just hate the poor and who view them all as impediments to their wealth building. For him, cops and teachers fall into the same category. Top

	#976135 - Yesterday at 11:20 PM Re: Ontario Sued by ACLU [Re: threeputt] jojotaxpayer jojotaxpayer Senior Member Registered: 04/04/08 Posts: 796 Loc: Ontario County Ya, and there are a lot of retired threeputts that sponge off of the state retirement system, that I also have to pay top dollar for.