Hoping that they can cook to books to the point where they can avoid the full amount of absolutely necessary spending cuts:
California’s top accountant said the state would begin issuing IOUs to hundreds of thousands of creditors after lawmakers failed to meet its deadline this week to close a massive budget deficit.
California Controller John Chiang said Wednesday he planned to send out $3.4 billion of IOUs in July to state contractors and local governments, as well as to residents expecting income-tax refunds, welfare grants and college scholarships…
…Mr. Chiang said without IOUs, the state would run out of cash by the end of July. “It’s our last official step prior to defaulting,” he said. Mr. Chiang delayed similar payments in February because of another cash-flow emergency, but didn’t issue IOUs at that time.
Legislators have been deadlocked for more than a month on ways to close what is now a $26 billion deficit in a $92 billion general-fund budget. Late-night sessions failed to produce a compromise.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed deep cuts and some so-called revenue accelerations, which would include larger income-tax withholding. Democrats, who control the Legislature, countered with a $21 billion proposal that includes $11 billion of cuts and relies more heavily on accounting gimmicks and one-time fixes. Republican lawmakers on Tuesday rejected the latest Democratic plan, which Mr. Schwarzenegger said he would veto anyway. (emphasis added)
Gimmicks! The California economy is collapsing under an avalanche of tax and spend liberalism, and the liberals want to use sleight of hand to get out of it…knowing that it will only put off the day of reckoning to next July. Perhaps they hope the economy will recover, or Santa ‘Bama will come down the chimney with a hundred billion dollars of taxpayer goodies…more likely, they are just afraid and simply want to get to the next day without having to expose themselves to an unpopular vote.
This is what you want for us, liberals? This is your State – GOPers have only slight influence, and have had only slight influence for the past decade in California…and conservatism has had no influence at all (except at the ballot boxes when referenda come up for a vote, and even then, sometimes, it doesn’t come through). This should be a paradise – a place of education and health care for all, no more crime, no more pollution, steady “sustainable” growth, racial harmony…where is it, liberals? To use an old phrase, “where’s the beef”? If you can’t do it with 30 million people, why should we believe you that you can do it with 300 million?
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