re: #263 albusteve

Last’s year’s stimulus package was primarily a way for states to avoid the day of reckoning by shoveling money to them by the boatload. States like CA, NY, and NJ (among others) were able to carry on as if they were rolling in the wine and roses. This year? No federal bailout for them - so they’re confronting massive deficits that are even larger than they ought to have been had they started curbing spending last year to deal with massive shortfalls in revenues.

New York’s situation is particularly egregious because they used the fed funds to prop up a budget that increased spending by 5% last year. Now, they don’t have the state revenues to cover a budget that size, don’t have the fed funds, and they can’t raise broad based taxes because taxpayers are in a foul mood.

Oh, and they are refusing to curb spending in any significant and meaningful way because the politicos don’t want to offend the unions.