South Carolina’s budget woes got even worse Tuesday when government spending was slashed by another 5 percent, leaving agency directors to decide between layoffs, employee furloughs and turning away the state’s downtrodden.
The Budget and Control Board voted 3-2 to cut $238.2 million from the state budget, which has fallen from $6.7 billion to $5.1 billion in less than two years.
For starters, this summer when her husband held the customary I-have-disappointed-my-family press conference, she did not appear alongside him. This was a doubly wise move, since the governor apparently chose to make the most emotional and difficult announcement of his life without a script. Not only did Jenny Sanford avoid looking like a fool for literally standing by her man, she didn’t have to be associated with what quickly devolved into a p.r. train wreck. (His rambling, 18-minute speech included weeping, a mention of his lifelong love of camping and a “surreal” conversation he’d recently had with his father-in-law.)
Then, not long after her husband’s confession, Jenny gave an interview to the Associated Press. She was a model of control, revealing just enough detail about the affair to communicate her blamelessness in the events that transpired without letting her situation tip into the pitiable. Wearing a perky printed blouse, she stayed relentlessly on message: she was holding up her end of the deal ”” if her husband wanted back into the family, he would have to reciprocate. “It’s one thing to forgive adultery,” she said. “It’s another thing to condone it.”
With a sputtering economy and widespread budget crises, many states have decided that reducing their prison populations is a good way to save money.
Illinois is one of the latest examples. Under its new early release program, as many as 1,000 nonviolent offenders will be able to finish their sentences at home or at other locations approved by prison officials.
Jenny Sanford made it clear Friday: She isn’t standing by her man.
Stung by a cheating husband, South Carolina’s first lady filed for divorce on grounds of adultery because of Gov. Mark Sanford’s affair with his Argentine mistress.
Friends, political observers and media experts said the move separates Jenny Sanford, a former Wall Street vice president, from a string of other jilted political wives because she opted to dissolve a 20-year marriage.
“She impeached him when the Legislature wouldn’t,” veteran University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said of the Sanford scandal.
“In the future you will have people asking whether the wronged spouses will follow the Hillary Clinton example, or the Jenny Sanford example.”
Unless the unforeseen happens, Gov. Mark Sanford has avoided impeachment.
The House Judiciary Impeachment Subcommittee on Wednesday voted 7-0 to recommend that the Legislature censure the governor instead of impeach him for his 2008 state-paid escapade with his Argentine mistress and his June disappearing act.
The subcommittee’s recommendation is generally seen as putting the matter to rest, even though the full 25-member House Judiciary Committee has to consider the recommendation next week and the House could still take up impeachment when it reconvenes in January.
Sanford said he was grateful to the subcommittee members for their deliberative approach and to the public for standing by him.
Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded Illinois’ general obligation bond rating to A2 from A1, citing the state’s financial woes stemming from the U.S. recession.
Moody’s cut other Illinois ratings, affecting about $24 billion of outstanding debt, including the state’s Build Illinois sales tax revenue bonds, also cut to A2 from A1.
The downgrade gave Illinois the second lowest U.S. state rating from Moody’s, with California having the lowest at Baa1, a Moody’s spokesman said.
Moody’s said Illinois has yet to take action to tackle a structural budget gap of more than $11 billion, equal to about 35 percent of its expenditures.
The battle over same-sex marriage in New Jersey headed toward a legislative showdown Monday night, when a bill that would allow such unions narrowly cleared a key legislative committee and was set for a vote by the full State Senate.
The 7-to-6 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee — which came after years of efforts by gay rights advocates and a day of emotionally charged testimony by dozens of supporters and opponents of the bill — was the first time any legislative body in the state had ever approved a gay marriage bill. The approval brought cheers from hundreds of supporters who crammed the State House committee room.
But the measure faces an uphill fight when it is put up for a vote on Thursday before the full Senate, where even supporters concede that they do not yet have the 21 votes needed to pass it. If it does pass, it will go to the Assembly, where passage is considered more likely.
Ruth Hassell-Thompson was a young girl decades ago when her older brother, a gay man, vanished from her deeply religious family, moving away to escape their disapproving father.
Ms. Hassell-Thompson, 67, searched for years, finally finding him in a village in the south of France. When she urged him to come home, he said that “my father doesn’t want to see me.”
“But your sister does,” Ms. Hassell-Thompson recalled telling him, her voice breaking as she stood on the Senate floor on Wednesday and publicly revealed her brother’s story for the first time.
The state on Wednesday told bond investors it is facing a $1 billion hole in this year’s budget ”” a shortfall five times bigger than previously disclosed ”” and will cut funding for schools, municipalities, higher education, hospitals and pension plans to close the gap.
For months, Governor Corzine has been hinting at the need for such cuts as New Jersey grapples with the fallout from the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Officials previously acknowledged a deficit of at least $8 billion for fiscal year 2011 and $190 million for this fiscal year. The depth of the state’s current shortfall was not revealed until Wednesday.
“It is going to be a gut-wrenching experience,” said Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities.
The first test of whether Gov. Mark Sanford will survive an attempt to impeach him will be decided by Dec. 9.
A special panel made up of seven House members began deliberations Tuesday on the question of whether Sanford’s alleged wrongdoings rise to the level of serious misconduct or serious crimes.
Only 16 governors in the history of the United States have been impeached, and just eight were forced out of their positions. No governor in South Carolina has been impeached, although the House attempted to remove a governor in the 1870s.
The State Ethics Commission has charged Gov. Mark Sanford with breaking state ethics laws 37 times, including using state planes for family trips, spending campaign funds on a hunting trip and flying first class, instead of coach, while on state travel.
The commission, which last week wrapped up its preliminary, three-month-long investigation into allegations against the embattled governor, released the charges to the public Monday.
The commission’s findings have been eagerly awaited by legislators, who are deciding whether to oust Sanford from office before his term ends in January 2011.
The S.C. Ethics Commission has charged S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford with 37 counts of breaking state ethics laws. The commission filed its charges last week but only released them Monday.
Those charges allege that, in 18 instances, Sanford authorized, approved or allowed the purchase of business-class airfare so that he could travel to and within the continents of Europe, Asia and South America.
Four of the flights cited involved a 2008 state Commerce Department trip to Brazil that Sanford extended to Argentina so that the married, two-term Republican governor could see his Argentine lover.
As the University of California’s Board of Regents met Thursday at U.C.L.A. and approved a plan to raise undergraduate fees ”” the equivalent of tuition ”” 32 percent next fall, hundreds of students from campuses across the state demonstrated outside, beating drums and chanting slogans against the increase….
After Thursday’s vote, as news trickled out to students rallying outside, the chants grew louder and students linked arms to block regents from leaving the building. The police intervened, and as one regent left, about 100 students clustered around him, yelling “Shame on you!”
Mark Yudof, the university president, said the state budget cuts had left the university no choice but to raise fees, and noted that the system received only half as much, per student, from the state as it did in 1990.
“My biggest fear,” Mr. Yudof said, “is an exodus of faculty.”
California government is again beset with red ink, facing a nearly $21-billion deficit over the next year and half, according to a report released today by the state’s chief budget analyst.
Nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor projected state spending severely out of line with tax collections not just amid the current recession but for years to come. Solving the fiscal mess will require “painful choices” in both cutting services and raising revenue, Taylor warned.
The gloomy forecast, which comes after Sacramento officials have already raised taxes and slashed programs this year, portends a fierce budget battle again in 2010.
It was disheartening to hear the recent statistics showing payrolls fell by 190,000 workers last month and the U.S. unemployment rate climbed to 10.2 percent. These numbers have been creeping up for some time now, and families nationwide are hurting from lost jobs, lost benefits, and lost sense of self. There had to be something different – something better – that could be done.
Though we knew we weren’t the first to tackle this challenge, we decided to use the skills we had – researching. One program in particular stuck out – work sharing. Simply put, work sharing is mutually beneficial to both employers and employees – a win/win situation. Employers reduce workers’ weekly hours and pay, and the workers collect unemployment from the state in lieu of being laid off.
Update: Mark Zandi’s piece on this important subject is here and includes the following:
Still, the recovery remains fragile. No doubt, there will be moments in the coming months when the economy appears liable to falter again. In order to ensure that today’s tentative recovery becomes a lasting expansion, the government must now make it a priority to deal with employment ”” particularly among small businesses.
While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated. Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.
[Episcopal Bishop Stephen] Lane said that after Gov. Baldacci signed the same-sex marriage law earlier this year, the bishop began to work on a set of guidelines for Maine Episcopal clergy to use with legal same-gender marriage. Due to the law’s repeal, these guidelines will not be distributed.
“However, I will continue to work with a small group to consider the ways we may support the faithful, monogamous relationships of faithful gay and lesbian Episcopalians,” Lane added. “Yesterday was a set back to be sure, but we will continue to strive for justice and peace among all people. We are in this for the long haul.”
About 37 percent of Maine’s 1.3 million population is Roman Catholic, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives. Episcopalians represent 8 percent of the population, however 2008 diocesan attendance figures reveal that less than 5,000 of those parishioners are in church each week.
Yesterday, Question 1 provided each of us with the opportunity to exercise our franchise, to express our support for the right of same-gender couples to be afforded the full rights and responsibilities of a civil marriage or to disagree. Yesterday, Mainers chose to disagree.
Many faithful Episcopalians are deeply grieved at this decision. They had hoped that they and their families might enjoy the recognition and protections afforded heterosexual couples. The rejection of the law also feels like rejection of them as persons. I join in their grief that the right of same gender couples to enter into a lifelong, monogamous marriage has been denied. At the same time I know there are other faithful Episcopalians who are thankful about the election results. I understand that this matter has been a matter of conscience for them. Although the question of same-gender civil marriage may be settled in Maine for now, I would remind all Episcopalians ”“ both here in Maine and across the wider Church ”“ that we will continue the conversation about these issues for years to come.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm warned Tuesday of a possible 20 percent cut in state spending next year, a draconian step after billions in cuts since 2003 already have dented police and fire services, pushed schools toward insolvency and reduced oversight of prison inmates.
The request from Granholm is a further blow to health care providers, state police, universities and others dependent on public money in a state where revenue, adjusted for inflation, is at about the same level as in 1965.
Double-digit cuts likely mean double-digit university tuition increases, for example.
“I’m certainly having to take a job to find extra income to offset some of these (scholarship) cuts,” said Mitch Rivard, a 19-year-old Michigan State University junior from Bay City. “We’re going to see a very big gap in terms of who is be able to attend college if these cuts continue.”
Despite White House efforts to discount the importance of the loss of the only two governorships on the off-year ballot, especially in New Jersey, where Obama had campaigned heavily for embattled Gov. Jon Corzine, the implications were clear to other Democrats.
Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a leader of the moderate-conservative “Blue Dogs,” called the result “a wake-up call for Congress. A tidal wave could be coming.”
His fellow Tennessean, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, said that Obama “retains his personal popularity, but his policies, and those pushed by the congressional Democrats, are scaring the daylights out of people.”
Democratic pollster Peter Hart, in a memo to his clients, warned of the possible consequences of “the disappointment and disgust the American public feels toward Washington. It is as strongly negative as the period of 1979-80 and 1973-74.” Both those cycles saw wholesale changes in Congress, the Democrats benefiting in the latter and the Republicans in the former.
Vast economic discontent marked the mood of Tuesday’s off-year voters, portending potential trouble for incumbents generally and Democrats in particular in 2010. Still the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey looked less like a referendum on Barack Obama than a reflection of their own candidates and issues.
The gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey looked less like a referendum on Barack Obama than a reflection of their own candidates and issues. Still, the two Republican victories, in predominantly Democratic New Jersey and in purple Virginia, had to smart.
Just under half the voters in Virginia, 48 percent, approved of the way Obama is handling his job, rising to 57 percent in New Jersey. Most in both states, in any case, said the president was not a factor in their vote.
Perhaps most striking were economic views: A vast 89 percent in New Jersey and 85 percent in Virginia said they were worried about the direction of the nation’s economy in the next year; 56 percent and 53 percent, respectively, said they were “very” worried about it.
Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.
Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell’s victory in the Virginia governor’s race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie’s ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Maine voters rejected a state law that would allow same-sex couples to wed. If supporters had prevailed, it would have marked the first time that the electorate in any state endorsed gay marriage.
Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners — holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.
Technically, it’s not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers’ annual tax bills won’t change.
Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You’ll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less.
What does all of this mean?
Populism is on the rise and conservatism is gaining steam, perhaps at its own expense. (If Hoffman loses in New York, it almost ensures that the Northeast will be almost exclusively Democrat-blue territory).
A sour mood exists among people, with close-to-10-percent unemployment, decreasing health-care benefits and rising taxes – and a view that the well-heeled get bailed-out but John and Joan Q. Citizen do not.
Because our political system was designed to be slow and laborious and to do little, that sour mood grows rather than dissipates.
These political conditions have made the difficult course of lawmaking become nearly impossible, and governing has become highly averse to coherent action.
The Senate Finance Committee filed its sweeping health care reform bill Monday and its release served largely to highlight the divisions among Democrats over the direction of reform.
The massive, 1,500 page bill is expected to serve as the backbone for Democratic reform efforts going forward and five senators expressed concerns about one of its main provisions, a 40 percent tax on high-end insurance plans.
The tax is designed to pay for reform and lower costs by making the so-called Cadillac plans less attractive for insurers to offer. Under the bill, a plan that costs an individual more than $8,000 and a family more than $21,000 annually would be subject to the tax.
ROSE HOBAN: Every day is busy for nurse Juanita Larkens(ph).
Ms. JUANITA LARKENS (Nurse): Good afternoon. This is Juanita. How can I help you?
HOBAN: She’s one of three nurses who manage Medicaid patients at Goldsboro Pediatrics. Goldsboro is a growing town surrounded by old tobacco fields that are being converted to suburbs. About 15,000 Medicaid-eligible children come to the clinic.
Ms. LARKENS: All of them are not known to us, I mean, but those that are introduced to us by whatever means, we will attempt to help them if we can.
My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren’t old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state.
Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable.
Last year’s credit crunch exposed cases in which investors’ agents placed collateral into risky pools of securities that had big losses. That spurred lawsuits by investors against agents. In some cases, the declines have been so severe that they undermined years of profits. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System reported last month a loss of $634 million for its securities-lending program in the year ended in March.
Wilshire Consulting said that figure could end up as high as $1 billion, wiping away much of the $1.4 billion that Calpers has earned from this since its inception more than 20 years ago.
“We are in the process of developing new policies to reduce risk and losses in the program’s reinvestment of collateral cash,” said Calpers spokesman Brad Pacheco.
Three inarguable facts dominate California’s system of financing state government:
”¢ It’s a mess.
”¢ It’s currently a mess in large part due to the deepest and most pervasive global recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
”¢ It’s been a mess for much of the past three decades because the combination of an out-of date tax system, reckless spending and fickle voters has made state government extremely vulnerable to the ebbs and flows of the economy.
While there’s not much the state’s elected leaders can do about the worldwide economic woes, they have tried for decades ”“ mostly unsuccessfully ”“ to wrestle with the triple threat of taxes, spending and ballot-box budgeting.