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alstry (35.49)

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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June 30, 2009 – Comments (3)

The California Citizens Compensation Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to cut state legislators' monthly car allowances, fringe benefits and their per diem allowance by 18 percent.

The cuts will begin as of Dec. 1, according to the commission, which met in Sacramento. Chief legislative counsel Bill Curtis warned the five-member commission that they did not have the authority to regulate members' per diem allowances, which are about $173 each day the Senate or Assembly meets.

The 18 percent cuts in benefits, per diem and cars also apply to constitutional officers of the state. The action follows and earlier vote to cut lawmakers' and state elected officials pay by 18 percent effective Dec. 1, 2010.

Kathy Sands, a former Auburn mayor, said the amount of per diem legislators are entitled to is "unjustifiable."

The daily sums can add up to between $30,000 and $35,000 a year, tax free. "I feel that this is a lot of money," Sands said.

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1989868.html

 

It is a good start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$173 TAX FREE per day is more than most of their voters make in a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9.09......It is getting closer.................................................................

3 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On June 30, 2009 at 5:01 PM, alstry (35.49) wrote:

Where is Donner and Deej when you think we are at a bottom???

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Delinquency rates on the least-risky mortgages more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier as U.S. efforts to help homeowners failed to keep pace with job losses that pushed more borrowers toward foreclosure.

Prime mortgages 60 days or more past due climbed to 2.9 percent of such loans through March 31 from 1.1 percent at the same point in 2008, the Office of the Comptroller of the CurrencyOffice of Thrift Supervision said today in a report. First-time foreclosure filings on the loans rose 22 percent from the fourth quarter, the report said. and the

“I’m very concerned about the rise in delinquent mortgages and foreclosure actions,” Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said in a statement with the report. President Barack Obama’s plan to create “sustainable, payment-reducing modifications is a positive step that should show significant benefits in the coming months,” Dugan said.

 

OUCH!!!!  A few more doubles and we are at about 25%!!!!!!

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#2) On June 30, 2009 at 5:19 PM, alstry (35.49) wrote:

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE SHUTDOWNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

States brace for shutdowns

 

Time is running out for the legislatures in Arizona, California, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania to solve budget gaps. 

Reporting from Indianapolis and Denver -- The last time Indiana missed its deadline for passing a budget and had to shut down the government was during the Civil War.

But on Monday, as lawmakers raced to hammer out an agreement over school funding, state agencies began preparing 31,000 workers to be temporarily out of a job. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has warned residents that most of the state's services -- including its parks, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and state-regulated casinos -- would be shuttered unless a budget is passed today.

 

Indiana is one of five states -- along with Arizona, California, Mississippi and Pennsylvania -- bracing for possible shutdowns this week as time runs out for lawmakers to close billion-dollar gaps in their fiscal 2010 budgets.

Of the 46 states whose fiscal year ends today, 32 did not have budgets passed and approved by their governors as of Monday afternoon, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Although the majority of those are expected to pass eleventh-hour budgets, the fiscal futures of a handful remain uncertain, said Todd Haggerty, an NCSL research analyst.

"It's a lot of states that are coming down to the wire," Haggerty said. "It's far more than we've seen in the past, and it's because of the state of the economy."

Since 2002, only five states have been forced to shut down their governments. Some of the closures were brief: In 2007, Michigan's doors were closed for four hours before lawmakers passed emergency measures that bought them time to close a $1.75-billion deficit.

"What's different now is that the recession has eroded tax revenues across the country," Haggerty said. Collectively, he said, states are wrestling with budget deficits totaling $121 billion.

In California, state finance officials will begin issuing IOUs on Thursday if lawmakers and the governor cannot agree on a way to close a $24-billion shortfall. The IOUs would go to local governments, vendors, taxpayers and college students receiving state financial aid. California has issued such IOUs only one other time -- in 1992 -- since the Great Depression.

In Arizona, which has never missed its constitutional budget deadline, officials are battling over how to resolve a $3-billion gap.

Republican lawmakers and the state's GOP governor, Jan Brewer, fought for months over her proposal for a temporary sales tax hike to preserve some government services. In a compromise unveiled Friday, legislators agreed to ask voters to approve the tax in November. But when a key committee was unable to muster a majority Monday for the compromise bill, lawmakers began drafting resolutions that would let the government function for at least a week.

Some services would go dark right away. Over time, the number of agencies still able to operate would shrink.

In Indiana, the budget fight revolves around how to allocate the state's shrinking revenu es and how much of its $1.3-billion surplus fund to tap.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-shutdown30-2009jun30,0,1912245.story

Where is Deej and Donner when we could use their help???? Report this comment
#3) On July 01, 2009 at 12:36 AM, OneLegged (< 20) wrote:

Next, congress needs a major haircut.

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