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- Christie Seeks To Suspend N.J. Tax Rebate, Skip Pension Payment
- Garden State To Skip $3 Billion Pension Contribution
- 'I Borrow Money to Buy Food,' Says City Employee
- Working Families Onto Welfare Rolls in City of Detroit
- Vallejo Struggles To Keep City Safe During Bankruptcy
- ECB’s Stark Sees Sovereign Debt Crisis Risk Unless Deficits Cut
- National Debt Up $2 Trillion on Obama's Watch
- 'India Will Muddle Along Until The Debt Crisis Hits'
- Canadian Finance Chief Warns U.S., Others On Deficit
- U.S. Debt At No Risk Of Downgrade - Geithner
- German Defense Cuts Loom as Merkel Fights Record Budget Deficit
- Schwarzenegger Will Veto $1.1 Billion Gasoline-Tax Swap Measure
- 'Live Within Your Means,’ Citizens Tell City Leaders
- Feldstein Sees Greece Euro-Exit Pressures as Deficit Plan Fails
- CMS Cuts Could Mean Hundreds Of Layoffs
- Mayors Seek $50 Billion to Upgrade U.S. Water, Sewer Systems
- National Debt Easily Passes $12.6 Trillion
- Red Tape Complicates Postal Service's Fiscal Repair Plan
- Schools on the brink: Districts could run out of money
- As Economy Booms, China Faces Major Water Shortage
- IRS, DOJ Use Social Media Sites To Track Deadbeats, Criminal Activity
- IRS Comes Knocking … For Four Cents
Economy
Christie Seeks to Suspend N.J. Tax Rebate, Skip Pension Payment
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie proposed a $29.3 billion budget that would suspend property-tax rebates, skip the state’s $3 billion pension contribution and fire 1,300 workers next year. The plan would reduce aid to schools by $820 million, towns by $446 million and higher education by $173 million. Christie, a Republican who took office Jan. 19, also called for a constitutional amendment that would limit annual growth in the state’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes to 2.5 percent.
Garden State to skip $3 billion pension contribution (New Jersey)
New Jersey won’t make a required $3.06 billion state pension contribution for the fiscal year starting July 1, Gov. Chris Christie said today.....The New Jersey Division of Pensions and Benefits said last month that the state pension system’s estimated unfunded liabilities climbed to $46 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, up $12 billion from the previous fiscal year.
City employees today urged Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to consider the plight of working families before making draconian pay cuts that will push them below the federal poverty level guidelines. "I borrow money right now to buy food," says Jackita Muhammad, a teller in the city's finance department. "I try to buy beans and other staples so I don't have to ask family for money, but the truth is that if the mayor cuts my pay, I will have to declare bankruptcy."
Vallejo struggles to keep city safe during bankruptcy
It was just about two years ago that the city of Vallejo declared bankruptcy and started hacking away at its public services. Just last month, in the wake of heavy cuts to Vallejo’s police force, a wave of violent crimes gripped the town, leaving cities all over the Bay Area wondering what toll budget cuts can take....Vallejo is finding that there’s no such thing as a good backup plan when a city hits rock bottom. How do you keep safe, clean, and healthy when you’re bankrupt? Other Bay Area cities may soon be asking these questions too.
ECB’s Stark Sees Sovereign Debt Crisis Risk Unless Deficits Cut
European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark said the euro region may face a sovereign debt crisis unless governments reduce budget deficits. There is “a clear risk that we will enter a third wave,” which is “a sovereign debt crisis in most advanced economies,” Stark told lawmakers in the European Parliament in Brussels today. Any undue delay in reducing budget gaps will “have serious negative side effects on confidence and economic welfare,” he said. “The situation in Greece shows how important it is to strictly apply credible fiscal rules.”
National Debt Up $2 Trillion on Obama's Watch
The latest posting from the Treasury Department shows the National Debt has increased over $2 trillion since President Obama took office. The debt now stands at $12.6 trillion. On the day Mr. Obama took office it was $10.6 trillion. President George W. Bush still holds the record for the most debt run up on his watch: $4.9 trillion. But it took him over four years to rack up the first two trillion dollars in debt. It has taken Mr. Obama 421 days.
'India Will Muddle Along Until The Debt Crisis Hits' (Jim Rogers)
After all the budget euphoria, it is time for a reality check. Investor and venture capitalist Jim Rogers remains deeply skeptical of India's future. In an interview with S. Srinivasan, he argues that the country is sitting on a fiscal time bomb.
Canadian finance chief warns US, others on deficit
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says other developed nations, including the United States, should come up with clearer plans on how they are going to get their weighty budget deficits under control. Flaherty also urged the Group of 20 leading and industrialized countries to step up work on financial reforms head of the annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington D.C.
U.S. debt at no risk of downgrade-Geithner
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner insisted on Tuesday there is "no way" major credit rating agencies will cut the gilt-edged rating they assign to U.S. debt offerings. His comments followed a report on Monday in which Moody's Investors Service said risks had grown to the credit ratings of the United States and other large Triple-A sovereign debt issuers.
German Defense Cuts Loom as Merkel Fights Record Budget Deficit
Lawmakers cut net new borrowing by 5.6 billion euros on March 5, saying the potential for savings on labor-market programs such as jobless benefits has increased after Europe’s biggest economy exited its deepest recession since World War II in the second quarter of 2009. The overall budget deficit will swell to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product this year, almost twice the European Union ceiling of 3 percent, the Finance Ministry said Feb. 22 before lawmakers cut Merkel’s budget request. With spending now slimmed to 319.5 billion euros, the IWH economic institute yesterday predicted a deficit of 4.9 percent of GDP this year.
Schwarzenegger Will Veto $1.1 Billion Gasoline-Tax Swap Measure
The measure sent to his desk was a revision of Schwarzenegger’s original plan to lower consumer prices while simultaneously helping close a budget gap estimated at $20 billion for this year and next.
“It has been nine weeks since I called a special session of the Legislature and, while the Legislature has sent bills to my desk that address $200 million of the shortfall, that amount represents merely 1 percent of the projected deficit,” the governor wrote in a March 15 letter.
'Live within your means,’ citizens tell city leaders (Toledo)
At two of six public meetings on the city’s budget, ''live within your means'' – the exact words spoken by citizens – was among the advice given to Toledo officials trying to deal with a $48 million deficit. The advice is sound but it wasn’t something he needed to be told, Mayor Mike Bell said. Appearing at public meetings March 9 in council District 5 and March 11 in District 1, the mayor said his administration will operate with a conservative estimate of taking in only $136 million in income taxes this year. That’s $11 million less than former mayor Carty Finkbeiner projected when he submitted a proposed budget last November, before leaving office.
Feldstein Sees Greece Euro-Exit Pressures as Deficit Plan Fails
Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein, who warned almost two decades ago that the euro would prove an “economic liability,” said Greece’s austerity plan will fail and the country may quit the single currency to fix its fiscal crisis.
“The idea that Greece can go from a 12 percent deficit now to a 3 percent deficit two years from now seems fantasy,” Feldstein, an adviser to U.S. presidents since Ronald Reagan, said in a March 13 interview in Geneva. “The alternatives are to default in some way or to leave, or both.”
CMS Cuts Could Mean Hundreds Of Layoffs
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman said he's moving forward with a plan to lay off 841 employees, including more than 580 teachers.
Mayors Seek $50 Billion to Upgrade U.S. Water, Sewer Systems
The average U.S. household’s water and sewer rates may double or even quadruple by 2028 without additional federal grants and loans, the mayors said in a statement today, without providing specifics. Americans are likely to face more service disruptions as rising population, urbanization and aging equipment all help to intensify the burden on municipalities, according to the report.
National debt easily passes $12.6 trillion
A look at the debt history will show $12,575,678,862,901.61 on 3/12 and $12,636,662,956,140.07 on 3/15.
Red tape complicates Postal Service's fiscal repair plan
This year is shaping up as a $7 billion loss. So the Postal Service is seeking help from Congress for the fourth time since 2003 – this time for permission to close uneconomic post offices, drop Saturday delivery and abandon prepayment of pension costs.
Since 2006, the Postal Service has been required to prepay its pension and retiree health care costs – an average of $5.6 billion a year. Congress last year let the service postpone some of that requirement. Potter wants to go back to pay-as-you-go benefits, as with Social Security and Medicare.
Schools on the brink: Districts could run out of money (Mississippi)
A recent state survey indicates trouble for a number of school districts as tax collections and state aid shrink. "You will see some school districts literally run out of money," House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown said Monday. Brown, D-Jackson, suggested that as many as 10 districts could fall into the red in the coming months without the state's help.
As economy booms, China faces major water shortage
The source of the water predicament is China's own economic success. A bigger economy means more factories and power plants, all prodigious users of water for processing and cooling. Big cities are getting bigger, using more drinking, shower and sewage water. People are eating better, and growing more food requires more water.
IRS, DOJ use social media sites to track deadbeats, criminal activity
The 38-page IRS training document posted on the EFF Web site provides detailed tips to agents on how to conduct searches, locate relevant taxpayer information, narrow down and refine results, and save multiple Web pages using Adobe's Web capture feature. Among the social media applications mentioned are Google Groups, FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Second Life.
IRS Comes Knocking … for Four Cents
CBS) With tax season reaching its peak, the IRS is looking for every cent it's owed … literally. A Sacramento car wash owner found that out when two representatives from the Internal Revenue Service showed up to collect four cents - four cents - in unpaid taxes. "[They] came into the car wash, handed my manager a bill, and it was from the IRS," Aaron Zeff, the owner of Harv's Metro Car Wash, told CBS station KOVR. "The amount was four cents, four pennies." In truth, after three years of penalties and fees, the four cents actually ballooned to more than $200, but the bill still prompted some laughter.
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Definitely priceless. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!
I wonder if any corporations will sign up for military service. If they are exempt from service, along with the off-spring of the "governing" plutocracy, why should our lower income kids be expected to?
Northeast Initiative, First in Nation, Seeks to Curb Emissions
By Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
NEW YORK, Sept. 29 -- The country's first cap-and-trade auction for greenhouse gas reduction raised nearly $40 million for Northeastern states to spend on renewable energy technologies and energy-efficiency programs, officials of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which ran the auction, said Monday.
==================================================
(Now news from today)
Christie Seeks CO2 Revenue to Close N.J. Budget Gap
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wants to use funds from carbon-dioxide-permit auctions in the U.S. Northeast’s cap-and-trade program to help close the state’s $10.7 billion deficit.
Taking $65.2 million from the auctions to help cover the budget gap was one of the necessary “hard choices,” Christie, a Republican, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York today.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state carbon trading program for power plants, sells pollution rights at quarterly auctions. New Jersey has received $64.5 million of the $582 million raised by the regional carbon trading program in the seven auctions held since September 2008.
Last year, New York Governor David Paterson, a Democrat, and state lawmakers used $90 million raised from the sale of carbon-dioxide permits to help shrink a $3.16 billion deficit.
The diversion of funds doesn’t represent “an abandonment of our interest in alternative energy,” Christie said. Money from the auctions has gone to energy efficiency and renewable- power projects.
New Jersey’s Democratic-controlled Legislature will probably approve the decision because there are few alternatives, he said.
Remember when oil dependence was touted as a great thing:
http://www.archive.org/details/Destinat1956
A classic yarn from the American Petroleum Institute. Tells us a lot about why we are where we are today.
Don’t you think a high deficit was justified last year when the government had to spend and help the economy revive?
No. They are just trying to push the problems out into the future rather than solving the underlying problems. Do you really think the solution for a problem of too much debt and too much consumption is more debt and more consumption?
Are we not living in extraordinary times when we have to follow such flexible policies?
We are indeed. They are making the problems worse in extraordinary times which require tough measures to correct decades of abuse.
The finance minister rolled back some of the economic-stimulus measures he had announced last year. Would you have preferred to see a complete rollback rather than a partial one?
Yes. And more
Damn........ India seems to be following suit....
I just saw a Marc Faber video where he claimed that India Banks look like a good investment. Also, he praised their central bank as doing a good job in this crisis. This painted a good picture. But with this article, Rogers points out the economic/debt to GDP ratio as an issue. Not sure if there is a problem there relative to other countries, as I havent' done the comparison. However, as I read the article, I wondered if Rogers was talking about the USA debt and budgeting issues at times. Does India's central bank policy make a difference?
This is an issue I work on too. Waterpipes fail due to many factors. Joint failure, frost heaving, failure of adjacent storm or sanitary sewer that wash out the bedding, corrosive soils. Lets just talk about useful life. The first water pipes were sand cast iron. They were very thick due to the sand casting method. They were installed up until the early 1900's. Their expected useful life is about 125 years. If they were installed 1880 to 1920, failure from 2000 to 2040. Next came centrifugal cast iron. Centrifugal casting made for thinner walls. Thinner walls make for shorter life. Installed from 1930's to 1960. Failure, 80-100 years. 2010 through 2060. Then came ductile iron. Less brittle but still thin. Most suburban water main was installed in two big bursts, as a WPA project in the '30's, and as a part of the rapid suburbinization after WWII in the '50's. Both were federally funded. Federal funding for municipal infrastructure has decreased drastically since then, almost non-existant. Urban watermain was built during the urbanization of America, 1860-1930.
The problem is that in the suburban development, because of single family detached housing and the road frontage of the average suburban lot, 1000 ft of water pipe can only service 10-20 families. In a dense urban setting with multipe family dwellings, it could service 10 times that. When all this infrastructure comes up for replacement, we will see if suburban style living is viable in the long term.
I fear that the cost will be too high to keep it all operating, and triage will have to take place. Developments that are half abandoned or far from the transmission main will have to be shut down and the residents relocated, like what is being proposed for New Orleans now.
We have a local hydro-engineer neighbor, who is also a Crash Course graduate, who has pointed out that the cast Iron pipes installed in the late 19th century had a 125-150 year life expectancy. The vitreous pipes installed around mid 20th century had a 50-75 year life expectancy. The plastic pipes installed in the late 20th century had about a 25 year life expectancy.
Is it any wonder that water and sewer pipes are bursting across the USA at an average rate of one every two minutes (NYT, 3/15)? No water companies that I know of have done any planning or funding for this multiple end of life scenario across the entire nation, and most still-asleep citizens expect to get water for nearly free. Yet another pressure that is bubbling up to a critical level!
Another hockey stick curve may be in order!
I haven't read the NYT article yet, I'm not sure if that rate of water main breaks is really that significant or an increasing trend; I'll want to research more before making conclusions myself. Certainly water system maintenance is a continuous effort and becoming more and more costly.
My experience is the biggest driver right now for water main replacement is to increase capacity. Older mains are usually undersized to handle the flows demanded by an increasing number of household connections and increasing water use household in some communities, plus greater emphasis on meeting fire flow supression standards. Old cast iron mains not cement lined are often tuberculated inside, greatly reducing hydraulic capacity further.
One of the biggest drivers for sewer main replacement is to reduce infiltration and inflow. That's the water that leaks into the sewer system from rainstorms and groundwater, and can overwhelm treatment plants in severe storms or result in overflows with reduced or no treatment. Often making sewer improvements is more cost effective than increasing treatment plant capacity.
As a consultant, I've developed masterplans for many communities which are more proactive than others. Masterplans identify existing deficiencies, and future supply, treatment, storage, and distribution main needs for the next 20 - 50 years. Not many other types of organizations make plans out that far I suspect. The projects are identified and costs estimated; the challenge is finding enough funding to get them done. Just my firm submitted $100M in applications last year just in NH for the ARRA stimulus funding, but enough money was only available for a fraction of those. And when the funding assistance does come in, it means the national debt was increased at the federal level.
Typical funding programs available today include Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), Rural Development (USDA), state and tribal assistance grants (STAG, aka pork spending earmarks) and state revolving loan funds (SRF).
Tom
While we may not be able to predict the exact time or place of a water or utility disruption I would say the trend is that we will be forced to divert increasing quantities of surplus energy to more frequent disruptions. And of course the human labor will be generally provided by a decreasing number of public employees. That should sit well with the unemployed who are at home experiencing the disruption of services.
Meanwhile I heard today that the parking lot at the highway winter closure point here in the Sierras was packed last weekend with snowmobilers out reveling in the fresh snow and good weather. No problems and no worries here, just lots of cheap energy and free time!! What a paradox.
We truly are living at one of histories unique points in time!
Coop