Posted on 03/23/2020 6:44:22 AM PDT by karpov
When Major League Baseball postponed the opening of its season, teams also closed their spring training camps. That’s a $25 million hit to the Arizona economy, where many clubs train, local experts say. Meantime, every NBA game that the Chicago Bulls don’t play because the league has suspended its season will cost the Windy City and Cook County $228,000 in local amusement taxes alone. These are just a few of the many ways that the closing down of large sections of the American economy, along with the plunge of stock markets, is likely to undermine state and local budgets and force governments around the country to cut spending, even as they scramble to find extra funds to help battle the coronavirus. States that rely on meetings, conventions, and tourism, or that derive substantial economic growth from energy production, or that depend on big gains in the financial markets from wealthy individuals, will be among the biggest losers unless the economy turns around fast. The problem: most are in the middle of budget season, trying to plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 amid enormous uncertainty.
The coronavirus economic shock came just as states were finally making up for the damage done by the Great Recession. Coming out of that downturn, state and local tax collections declined for two consecutive years—for the first time in the post-World War II era. A subsequent slow economic recovery made state revenue growth sluggish for nearly a decade. It took states, on an inflation-adjusted basis, until 2016 to get back to the levels of tax collections seen before the recession. But the economic expansion of the last three years, accompanied by a soaring stock market, had finally enabled states to stabilize their budgets
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
They could always reduce the insane pensions...
I’m sure the welfare states will foist their problems on the “Federal” government. Note in political speak, “Federal” is a dog whistle for Trump.
No matter what happens to the economy, Illinois state pensioners are still going to get their 3% increase this year.
They will use this as an excuse to raise taxes.
Democrats don’t care. Its only money.
What’s 3% of nothing?
> They could always reduce the insane pensions... <
Most states have constitutional clauses that prohibit that. But we will soon be at the point where those clauses will have to be changed. Will the politicians have the guts to do that? I really doubt it.
Retirement at half-pay used to be the norm. But as you probably know, many public service folks are now retiring at full pay, or even more. That’s due to the way pensions are calculated these days.
States also had clauses in their constitutions defining marriage as between one man and one women...
Meant Jack and Sh!t...
Sure my 800$ is outrageous after over 30 years service?
Old people do not collect big pensions.
think about public pensions...…..confiscate money under threat of incarceration, from people working to support their own families, send their kids to college, save for their own retirement to pay people not to work so the can retire in their early 50s
How many of these states have been in the red for many years?
This is simply debt they didn’t approve. Cry me a river.
There’s a silver lining. Insolvency/bankruptcy will be a catalyst for change in the one-party, leftist states of IL, CA and NY
> States also had clauses in their constitutions defining marriage as between one man and one women... <
You make an interesting point there. But no state judge is willing to enforce those clauses anymore. On the other hand, if you try to reduce a state or local pension unconstitutionally, judges will be lining up around the block to stop you.
It’s a real mess, for sure. Will it end in state and local entities going bankrupt? Or will the next Democrat president just bail everyone out?
Aren’t your pension obligations INFLATED beyond rational thought??? It’s just my opinion.
Evidently, California has a law that says that the retirement of state employees can’t be reduced.
Their retirement system, Calpers, has taken a big hit.
If they can’t reduce outlays, then they’ll have to increase their intakes.
That means increased taxes.
The problem is, that affects Opportunity Costs.
Every dollar taken from a Taxpayer is a dollar that Taxpayer can’t spend on something else.
That reduces the freedom that Taxpayer has.
Keeps U-Haul in very good business with folks exiting the state.
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