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Archive of Home on Wednesday July 01, 2009
Financial crisis torments states
(Updated 11:29 a.m. EDT, July 1, 2009) California may begin issuing IOUs this week because of the state’s unresolved budget crisis. But government disruptions were averted at least temporarily in five other states that missed a July 1 deadline for closing billion-dollar budget gaps. Read More
Furloughs cut into state services
With states facing a $121 billion shortfall in the next fiscal year, a growing number of them have turned to squeezing their workforce for savings, and effects both great and small will be felt. Read More
CA: 11th-hour votes on state budget fail
With a day to go until a cash crisis would force the state to stop paying its bills, lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger worked into the night Tuesday but failed to reach a budget agreement. Read More
AZ: Legislature approves budget plan; Brewer's stance unclear
Legislators gave final approval to a 2010 state-budget plan early Wednesday morning and now await word on whether Gov. Jan Brewer will accept it or force budget negotiations to begin anew. Read More
DE: State budget passes in marathon session; taxes, fees to jump $206 million
Completing a marathon session that lasted until 4 a.m. today, the General Assembly passed a $3.09 billion budget, $206 million in tax and fee increases and eliminated an unprecedented $800 million revenue shortfall. Read More
PA: Another fiscal year ends, another Pennsylvania standoff ensues
As Pennsylvania missed its budget deadline for the seventh year, Senate Republicans on Tuesday presented united opposition to Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed state tax increases and demanded the Democrat-controlled House vote on a spending plan. Read More
IL: Quinn wants tax hike -- even if it takes months
State government limped into a new budget year Wednesday without a solid spending plan and rookie Gov. Pat Quinn threatened to drag the fight out all summer until he gets an income tax increase. Read More
IN: Budget brings good, bad news for state schools
Indiana's lawmakers passed a $27.8 billion two-year budget Tuesday that supporters touted as a triumph in a recession but critics said came at the expense of students in urban and rural districts. Read More
CT: No budget deal to start fiscal year
Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Tuesday that she has signed an executive order to keep state government running when the new fiscal year begins today without a new budget enacted. Read More
OH: Stalemate continues as interim budget is signed
Like many Ohioans, state government now is living paycheck to paycheck. Read More
NC: N.C. gets an extension on its deadlocked budget
North Carolina got an extension. The legislature did not pass a new state budget by the end of the fiscal year at midnight last night, but lawmakers did approve a temporary spending bill to keep government operating. Read More
MS: Miss. lawmakers finish most of $6B budget, not PSC
Bleary-eyed Mississippi lawmakers approved most of the $6 billion budget before the state fiscal year started early Wednesday, addressing Medicaid and public safety while leaving only the state's utility regulatory agency unfunded. Read More
US: Tax hikes and cutbacks -- States crunched
NEW YORK -- It's not a happy new year for the states. States are carrying their financial woes into the new fiscal year, which for most started on Wednesday. Some had yet to pass their fiscal 2010 budgets. For others, tax hikes and draconian spending cuts went into effect. Read More
US: Some hard-hit states get less stimulus
Some of the states worst hit by the recession are getting far less federal economic-stimulus money per person than states faring better. Read More
PA: Rendell lines up loans, credit for state employees
In a sign that state budget talks could drag on for weeks or months, Gov. Ed Rendell today announced that 10 banks and credit unions are offering no-interest loans and lines of credit for up to 69,000 state employees whose paychecks could halt July 17. Read More
NY: New York Senate Democrats claim quorum, start passing bills
ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York Senate Democrats have begun voting on a host of bills and declaring them passed after claiming that a Republican lawmaker walking through the chamber gave them the required quorum. Read More
TX: All ready for the special session? Lawmakers introduce bills responsive to Perry's call
The Legislature meets tomorrow (Wednesday) to kick off the special session called last week by Gov. Rick Perry, and transportation will dominate the agenda. It could be a quick ride, or a bitter fight -- depending on how willing lawmakers are to push their differences down the road, until they return for the 2011 regular session. Read More
IA: A first for Iowa -- Alcohol revenue for year tops $100 million
Iowans are buying more liquor, beer and wine, bucking an economic trend that has seen sales of many retail products plunge over the past year. Read More
SC: New sex revelations fuel calls for resignation
Six of 27 members of the conservative Senate Republican Caucus Tuesday night issued a letter calling on Gov. Mark Sanford to resign. Read More
MN: At last, a second senator for Minnesota
Al Franken, a satirist known for his biting political humor, is headed to the U.S. Senate, the survivor of an epic legal struggle that opponent Norm Coleman finally conceded he couldn't win. Read More
Tracking the recession: Budget deadline looms
Unlike the federal government, states have to balance their budgets. But several states still have not completed spending plans for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Read More
Weekly wrap: Feds release long-awaited stimulus job guidelines
The Obama administration tells state officials to take "a simple headcount" of jobs saved or created by the stimulus program. Meanwhile, the demand for some special jobs is soaring. Officials also warn states not to shortchange education when balancing budgets. Read More
Ga. hotline aims to cut mental health costs
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Tracking the recession: States target jobs
Though unemployment is rising in nearly every state, aggressive efforts to create jobs are paying off — modestly — in many states. Read More
Reports: State income levels plunge
States racing to cobble together new budgets for their July 1 deadline could find themselves sinking back into red ink sooner than they think, as Americans’ income and the taxes they pay on it shrink, new data show. Read More
Weekly wrap: Sales tax fight splits GOP in Arizona
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) sues her own party over the budget. The U.S. labor department releases May unemployment data, and Illinois says it can’t afford to pay for indigent burials. For a quick update on the top recession news in the states, read Stateline.org's "Weekly wrap." Read More
New courts tailored to war veterans
Twenty years after local officials in Miami opened the nation's first drug court — a specialized "treatment court" aimed at rehabilitating low-level drug offenders instead of locking them up — state lawmakers in Illinois and Nevada are applying the same idea to a different population: war veterans who have had run-ins with the law. Read More
Recession ushers in more tobacco taxes
In a double-whammy for smokers, the federal government and seven states raised taxes on cigarettes this year. But the new taxes plus President Obama's vow to sign a bill imposing sweeping regulation of the tobacco industry threaten to shrink cigarette sales — and revenues for state coffers. Read More
Gay marriage legal in six states
With the exception of Rhode Island, same-sex marriage is now legal throughout New England, and neighboring New York could be next. On June 3, New Hampshire became the sixth state, including Iowa, to legalize gay nuptials. But despite these gains by the gay rights movement, the United States is still a nation divided over whether to redefine marriage. Read More |
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