If you were a governor and your state was broke ...

[ColbertWatcher]

... how would you solve your budget crisis

Yesterday (February 15, 2009), I posted a thread (here) asking my fellow DUers to answer a similar question.

There were many good answers including different ways to increase revenue (as opposed to just cutting taxes).

I've done my best to consolidate the answers from the thread and offer them to you today for your consideration. Please select from the choices below which best fits how you would solve a budget crisis if you were governor.

A. make government more efficient (go through what's in the budget already and cut existing waste, using the budget from 2 years ago)

B. cut salaries and per diem benefits for elected officials, starting with the governor

C. create a windfall tax for corporations with headquarters in the state

D. increase taxes on the wealthiest in the state (return to pre-Reagan numbers)

E. increase "sin taxes" (alcohol, cigarette, etc)

F. increase tolls, parking/speeding tickets and every fee related to motor vehicle ownership/operation including gas taxes

G. legalize marijuana and treat it like alcohol (taxing it, etc) and release all persons incarcerated for associated "crimes"

H. create a system where the state (and its citizens) benefit financially from the corporations that profit/exploit any and every natural resources within that state

I. legalize gay marriage

J. Other (see my post for my idea)

If you were a governor and your state was broke, how would you solve your budget crisis?

[Lost in CT]

1. I picked legalize gay marriage but I am not sure that would really help the budget. nt

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Marriage licenses I would assume. n/t

[Lost in CT]

5. Well it would add up to some decent quid but not the m/billions that most states need.

[Deja Q]

16. Based solely on raw numbers/statistics, the word "negligable" is the sad reality.

300 million Americans, including children.

200 million working or work-capable Americans/adults.

10% of that is 20 million; the theoretical number of GLBT people.

Now, having had personal ads up for over a decade, and reading others' comments on gay.com that have a diverse range of comments from a diverse range of people, how many actually want to become partnered for life, which is what "marriage" and "civil unions" are theoretically about? If only 10%, that whittles things down to 2 million. And that's nationwide. We're out there, but there's not enough of us to make a difference where it's needed the most.

In a typical city, there are - what - 100,000 people? 10,000 GLBT people, and keeping the same 10% guesswork, 1000 people want to become life-partnered. On a local level, "negligible" is a sad reality.

The number of those wanting to become life-partnered (and then finding someone) would have to be closer 100% to make any dent worth making.

Even if it is 100%, how many get to the point of engagement anyway?



Edited: Subject line; run-on sentence.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. For me it would be "All of the above" (except for the sin tax thing).

The poor are getting gouged enough as it is, no need to tax them more.

[hlthe2b]

4. Take bids on who gets to arrest and slam the bars on Bush*

Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Perle, Paul Bremer, Feith, and all the others I've failed to include. We'd reverse the national debt in now time.... The $$ from international sources, alone, would repay the stimulus.

[ccharles000]

6. increase "sin taxes"

[Fireweed247]

7. G for Ganja

Set the 'criminals' free and I imagine the state will save billions, not to mention those fathers and mothers will then be reunited with their families and perhaps able to help support them instead of having to rely on social programs.

I think maybe Arnold should rethink letting Enron off the hook- that money that they stole from California is still out there...somewhere...

[ColbertWatcher]

11. Letting Enron off the hook was the only reason he ran.

Davis was going to fight for the $9 billion stolen from the state.

Then, suddenly The Great Aryan Hope ran during that fucked-up recall election.

[blue_onyx]

8. Ideally, increase taxes on the wealthiest

We have a flat income tax and I would like to switch to a progressive income tax. The problem is our Constitution requires a flat income tax. Changing to a progressive income tax would require a 2/3 votes in the legislator (not gonna happen) or a ballot proposal.

[Greyhound]

9. Many good ideas there, but I'd start with Zero based budgeting.

Dick Riordan used it in LA and it works.

As far as I know every US government uses some variant of the same wasteful budgeting process. Each department has an annual budget, if at the end of the year that department has any money left over the following year's budget is cut by that amount. This leads to end of the year shopping spree's so that next year's budget starts at the same amount as the previous and then administrators fight to get that amount increased further. Of course, this leads to ever increasing budgets. with no possibility of decrease until some crisis demands dramatic cuts as we are seeing all over the country now.

All zero-based budgeting does is to require every entity to account for and justify it's entire budget every year and in doing so makes waste much easier to spot.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. I know that Gray Davis was going to change the way CA's budget was calculated ...

... just prior to being recalled. I wonder if that was going to be part of it?

[Greyhound]

15. Could be. Before the California Republik party rejected him as too liberal

(because he thinks women should retain domain over their own bodies) he was going to run against Beige and this was a major part of his platform.

[leftstreet]

12. Flying Spaghetti Monster would Tax Masturbation

"increase sin taxes"

What morons suggested that, and why are they on DU?

:eyes:

[ColbertWatcher]

13. The thread was a "brainstorm thread" any and all suggested were taken.

The best thing about putting that choice in there is that it shows the lurkers that it is available as a choice, but few are selecting it.

If it were not in there, then they could reassure themselves that the poll wasn't fair because it didn't include it and blah, blah, blah.

[Occam Bandage]

20. Suppose I increase cigarette taxes and alcohol taxes, and I institute a tax on

foods and drinks containing at least a certain proportion of sugars. I have successfully increased revenue, and decreased consumption behavior that is detrimental to the public health, especially the health of the poor. I have also lowered the profitability of producing goods that are detrimental to the public health. I do not see a downside.

[leftstreet]

21. Similarly you could increase Fire Dept profits by taxing matches

or firewood, home cleaning products, definitely slap a tax on electrical outlets

[Occam Bandage]

22. If I wanted to discourage use of home cleaning products or electrical outlets, I would

institute such a tax, yes. I assume you're trying to construct an absurd parallel, but if I believed that irresponsible recreational usages of the items you listed were causing a great public safety hazard, I would think such a tax would be entirely worthy of support.

[DJ13]

14. Increase taxes on the wealthy & reduce state work weeks to 4 days

Thats just a start to regain control of costs.

THEN you go line by line reducing services that had been expanded too much over the last 5 years, indexing those services to that 5 year baseline then allow for only enough expansion to cover increased population (if any).

Make enough cuts to bring the budget back into line so it can exist on the depreciating home valuations, and lowered sales taxes.

[Deja Q]

17. "All of the above" sans "G".

I knew a person who was a user. He claimed he wasn't an addict, but even I could tell he was lying. (You don't say "I can quit whenever I like" and follow up with actions that clearly spell out the exact opposite. As a controlled substance, like Adderall, perhaps Marijuana would be of benefit. No argument from me on potential medicinal uses. But that one person combined with other case studies and some posts on various forums... seems a potentially addictive substance after all.)

[Sebastian Doyle]

18. So you don't know anybody addicted to alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine?

Addiction and legality are two entirely separate issues. And as far as drug addiction goes, shouldn't be treated as a health issue, rather than a criminal issue?

[Occam Bandage]

19. A, B, D, E, F, I.

H is ambiguous but I might do it, depending on what it means exactly.

[Zynx]

23. I would target corrections as well as move to more stable sources of revenue.

One of the reasons states so quickly slingshot from surplus to deficit is that they rely too much on unstable sources. Capital gains is poorly budgeted for as it is included in normal personal income tax receipts and not recognized as a separate source of revenue. It should be budgeted for separately and the state should only be allowed to budget for an expected value of capital gains that follows a low linear rate of growth. The excess would be banked in a trust fund and drawn down when there is a deficit. This is a long term fix and would do nothing in the short term, but it is a huge pet issue of mine on state finance.