I received this from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. Enjoy.
Cathy
I have heard many transplants from Communist Countries talk or testify so eloquently against the centralization of our government and our educational system. But look what is happening now.
Our NH Commissioner of Education, Lyonel Tracy has teamed up with Hillary's national education guru, Marc Tucker.
http://www.cnht.org/news/2008/11/21/new-hampshire-educational-system-heads-for-troubled-waters/
The subject never ceases to chill me to the bone, if not outright enrage me. I don't know what can be done about it.
What this means for the future of local educational control in general is just NOT GOOD. I have watched the acceleration of this from the early 80's to now, and the current push has become frightening.
The New Hampshire Business Review article is finally MUCH more candid with the plan's details than other recent articles. I feel that exposing this 'change' is an issue that is QUINTESSENTIAL to maintaining our freedom from the further centralization of education under the control of federal government, and even further away from our local control.
Apparently emboldened by the Obama presidency and enabled by the fact that NH became controlled by Democrats in 2006 NH Commissioner of Education Lyonel Tracy has collaborated with Marc Tucker -- guru and proponent of the managed workforce.
Sweeping changes in the form of "centralized funding" to me indicates they are going full speed ahead with this 'Soviet-style' system in anticipation of, or to force the issue of, an income tax, will be dumbing the curriculum down even further, training students not teaching them, and getting them ready to pledge allegiance to international government. This is not about one person's math skills being stronger than the other persons', for competition, it's about following the rules of internationalism and being pigeonholed into a job.
And we will also have to pay teachers $110K/year for THIS treasonous nonsense?
This is not the NH or even the American 'way'.
It is sickening that NH Education Commissioner Lionel Tracy is looking for advice from none other than Marc Tucker, Hillary Clinton's GRAMSCI SOCIALIST educational guru for his plan to 'centralize' our system and take it out of the hands of local control, which has already happened in great part.
“The proposal to abandon local funding of schools in favor of state funding using a uniform pupil-weighting funding formula, combined with the addition of $19 billion to the system as a whole, will make it possible, for the first time in the history of the United States, to have an equitable means of funding our schools, while at the same time leveling up the funding of the system as a whole, so that relatively well-to-do districts will not have the incentive to defeat the system that they would have if the existing funds were simply redistributed.”
Who does Tracy think he is that he can get away with this?
THIS IS NOT NAZI GERMANY. Do people really understand that this is not 'improvement'? That no one voted for this? That most people have no idea about these 'plans' for the managed workforce?
If I'm going to contribute many thousands of dollars per year to this school system, you can bet I want it controlled by our local school board, which is barely answerable to US now as it is, not some federal agency whose programs are so burned into place that none can be dropped if not successful.
After spending 35 years teaching in a public school system, this is my pet issue and it continues to upset me terribly. I watched how as more money was poured into the system, it became less accountable, less about teaching, and more about brainwashing and pigeon-holing.
Chilling quote from Tracy:
"He also said that New Hampshire’s education leaders felt preparing the Granite State’s students for a future interconnected with the world was too important “to wait and join until we had all the [funding] details. However, we are moving very cautiously and selectively.”"
Of course this includes pushing for universal MANDATORY pre-K as well, one of Hillary's pet issues.
What this boils down to is more money from us, for less education from them, delivered through a rationalised system with control beyond our reach. Say goodbye to conservatism, fiscal or otherwise. Imagine having your 3-4 year old forced to leave your home to go to school (to be indoctrinated about XYZ at an even younger age)???
If you have been following the NH group known as CNHT's work, you will see that they have already exposed the WIA (Workforce Investment Act) as it functions in NH under post-secondary education. WIA was the brainchild of Robert Reich under Clinton. It has become nothing but a corrupt means for some "business" owners to scam the taxpayers out of federal funding that is supposed to help NH people get back into the workforce. These private 'training schools' depend on this government money, but have placed very few if any people into decent jobs.
NH legislators should look for the true motivation behind any new education bills proposed.
And anyone who stills sends their kids to public schools should complain about Tracy and what he plans to do with our system.
And self-styled education "reformers" like Russell Quaglia should not be paid thousands of dollars for dubious philosophical experiments on our children and millions should not be spent on philosophies like "Follow the Child".
This shows Tracy's connection to Tucker's educational vision via Tracy's connection to Hillary Clinton:
11/15/2007
NH Commissioner of Education Lyonel Tracy Endorses Hillary for President
New Hampshire for Hillary Announces 225 More Granite State Educators for Hillary
MANCHESTER, NH – Joining more than 500 Educators for Hillary, New Hampshire’s Commissioner of Education, Dr. Lyonel Tracy today announced his endorsement for Hillary for President. One week after announcing 312 Educators for Hillary, the New Hampshire for Hillary campaign today announced the names of 225 more educators from the Granite State who support Senator Clinton’s run for President.
“Senator Clinton has proven time and again that she is a leader in education,” said Dr. Lyonel Tracy. “Her work as First Lady in Arkansas to help set public school standards along with her efforts to reform No Child Left Behind put her leagues ahead of other presidential candidates. As President, she will be the advocate our nation’s educators need.”
As an advocate, First Lady, and United States Senator, Hillary has fought to raise the education standards in our nation’s schools. Hillary is committed to reforming No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In addition to fighting for full funding for NCLB, she is working to ensure the legislation supports early childhood education, improves teacher training, lowers class size, enhances parental involvement, eliminates environmental hazards in schools, and protects the programs that work for America’s children.
Senator Clinton is also working actively to secure full funding for Head Start, a program that has helped prepare children to succeed in school by providing comprehensive services addressing all the barriers children in poverty face.
Recently, Hillary proposed a plan to make college accessible and affordable for all Americans. By providing a $3,500 tuition tax credit—more than 50% of the cost of tuition at the average public institution—and increasing Pell grants, Hillary’s plan will unlock the doors to higher education for millions of young Americans. In addition, Hillary will simplify the student aid process and strengthen incentives for students interested in public service.
Hillary believes that investing in early childhood education is essential. Studies show that universal pre-kindergarten programs pay for themselves after nine years and produce a growing annual return in the years beyond. That is why Senator Clinton has proposed a plan to provide universal pre-kindergarten program to serve all of America’s four-year-olds. Her plan would expand access to the more than 3 million 4-year-olds who are not enrolled in state pre-kindergarten programs. It would provide states with matching funds to devise their own programs and requiring that classes be taught by highly-trained teachers.
“I am honored to have the support of Dr. Tracy and these dedicated men and women who have undertaken the critically important job of educating New Hampshire’s children,” said Senator Clinton. “With their help, I will continue working to ensure that Americans have access to the quality education they deserve from early childhood on.”
Dr. Lyonel Tracy was appointed Commissioner of Education for New Hampshire in 2005. Dr. Tracy has over 20 years of experience in the field of education. Prior to his appointment as commissioner, Dr. Tracy served as Superintendent of Schools in Portsmouth, President of the New England Association of School Superintendents and Chair of the New Hampshire Parent Teacher Association’s Education Committee.
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=4206
Friday, November 21, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Global Warming Facts
Hat tip to Eric Burg for a heads up to one of the best summaries I have read about the myths of global warming. The Heartland Institute also has a great section on Global Warming Facts.
I started this post yesterday thinking about the indoctrination that occurs in public schools aka government schools. Public schools have drifted so far away from the excellent academic standards they once had, that Americans fall for global warming myths hook, line and sinker. People have graduated decade after decade with substandard science, physics, logic and problem solving skills that they fall for the snake oil salesmen who push global warming.
Yes we must find alternative sources and conservation of energy is good, but this is unrelated to global warming. People are profiting from this myth but people are also dying because individuals are pushing this myth. The main profiteers will be the governments that tax this myth.
Cathy
1. MYTH - Planet earth is currently undergoing global warming
FACT - Accurate and representative temperature measurements from satellites and balloons show that the planet has cooled significantly in the last two or three years, losing in only 18 months 15% of the claimed warming which took over 100 years to appear — that warming was only one degree fahrenheit (half of one degree Celsius) anyway, and part of this is a systematic error from groundstation readings which are inflated due to the 'urban heat island effect' i.e. local heat retention due to urban sprawl, not global warming...and it is these, 'false high' ground readings which are then programmed into the disreputable climate models, which live up to the GIGO acronym — garbage in, garbage out.
2. MYTH - Even slight temperature rises are disastrous, ice caps will melt, people will die
FACT - In the UK, every mild winter saves 20,000 cold-related deaths, and scaled up over northern Europe mild winters save hundreds of thousands of lives each year, also parts of ice caps are melting yet other parts are thickening but this isn't reported as much (home experiment: put some water in a jug or bowl, add a layer of ice cubes and mark the level — wait until the ice has melted and look again, the level will have fallen). Data from ice core samples shows that in the past, temperatures have risen by ten times the current rise, and fallen again, in the space of a human lifetime.
3. MYTH - Carbon Dioxide levels in our atmosphere at the moment are unprecedented (high).
FACT - Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, currently only 350 parts per million have been over 18 times higher in the past at a time when cars, factories and power stations did not exist — levels rise and fall without mankind's help.
4. MYTH - Mankind is pumping out carbon dioxide at a prodigious rate.
FACT - 96.5% of all carbon dioxide emissions are from natural sources, mankind is responsible for only 3.5%, with 0.6% coming from fuel to move vehicles, and about 1% from fuel to heat buildings. Yet vehicle fuel (petrol) is taxed at 300% while fuel to heat buildings is taxed at 5% even though buildings emit nearly twice as much carbon dioxide!
5. MYTH - Carbon dioxide changes in the atmosphere cause temperature changes on the earth.
FACT - A report in the journal 'Science' in January of this year showed using information from ice cores with high time resolution that since the last ice age, every time when the temperature and carbon dioxide levels have shifted, the carbon dioxide change happened AFTER the temperature change, so that man-made global warming theory has put effect before cause — this shows that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a futile King Canute exercise! What's more, both water vapour and methane are far more powerful greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide but they are ignored.
6. MYTH - Reducing car use will cut carbon dioxide levels and save the planet
FACT - The planet does not need saving, but taking this on anyway, removing every car from every road in every country overnight would NOT produce any change in the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere, as can be seen using the numbers from Fact 4, and in any case it is pointless trying to alter climate by changing carbon dioxide levels as the cause and effect is the other way round — it is changes in the activity of the Sun that cause temperature changes on earth, with any temperature rise causing carbon dioxide to de-gas from the oceans.
7. MYTH - The recent wet weather and flooding was caused by mankind through 'global warming'
FACT - Extreme weather correlates with the cycle of solar activity, not carbon dioxide emissions or political elections, the recent heavy rainfall in winter and spring is a perfect example of this — it occurred at solar maximum at a time when solar maxima are very intense — this pattern may well repeat every 11 years until about 2045.
8. MYTH - The climate change levy, petrol duty, CO2 car tax and workplace parking charges are justifiable environmental taxes.
FACT - As carbon dioxide emissions from cars and factories does not have any measurable impact on climate, these taxes are 'just another tax' on enterprise and mobility, and have no real green credentials.
9. MYTH - Scientists on the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issue reports that say 'global warming' is real and that we must do something now.
FACT - Scientists draft reports for the IPCC, but the IPCC are bureaucrats appointed by governments, in fact many scientists who contribute to the reports disagree with the 'spin' that the IPCC and media put on their findings.
The latest report suggests that the next 100 years might see a temperature change of 6 Celsius yet a Lead Author for the IPCC (Dr John Christy UAH/NASA) has pointed out that the scenarios with the fastest warming rates were added to the report at a late stage, at the request of a few governments — in other words the scientists were told what to do by politicians.
10. MYTH - There are only a tiny handful of maverick scientists who dispute that man-made global warming theory is true.
FACT - There are nearly 18,000 signatures from scientists worldwide on a petition called The Oregon Petition which says that there is no evidence for man-made global warming theory nor for any impact from mankind's activities on climate.
Many scientists believe that the Kyoto agreement is a total waste of time and one of the biggest political scams ever perpetrated on the public ... as H L Mencken said "the fundamental aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary" ... the desire to save the world usually fronts a desire to rule it.
I started this post yesterday thinking about the indoctrination that occurs in public schools aka government schools. Public schools have drifted so far away from the excellent academic standards they once had, that Americans fall for global warming myths hook, line and sinker. People have graduated decade after decade with substandard science, physics, logic and problem solving skills that they fall for the snake oil salesmen who push global warming.
Yes we must find alternative sources and conservation of energy is good, but this is unrelated to global warming. People are profiting from this myth but people are also dying because individuals are pushing this myth. The main profiteers will be the governments that tax this myth.
Cathy
1. MYTH - Planet earth is currently undergoing global warming
FACT - Accurate and representative temperature measurements from satellites and balloons show that the planet has cooled significantly in the last two or three years, losing in only 18 months 15% of the claimed warming which took over 100 years to appear — that warming was only one degree fahrenheit (half of one degree Celsius) anyway, and part of this is a systematic error from groundstation readings which are inflated due to the 'urban heat island effect' i.e. local heat retention due to urban sprawl, not global warming...and it is these, 'false high' ground readings which are then programmed into the disreputable climate models, which live up to the GIGO acronym — garbage in, garbage out.
2. MYTH - Even slight temperature rises are disastrous, ice caps will melt, people will die
FACT - In the UK, every mild winter saves 20,000 cold-related deaths, and scaled up over northern Europe mild winters save hundreds of thousands of lives each year, also parts of ice caps are melting yet other parts are thickening but this isn't reported as much (home experiment: put some water in a jug or bowl, add a layer of ice cubes and mark the level — wait until the ice has melted and look again, the level will have fallen). Data from ice core samples shows that in the past, temperatures have risen by ten times the current rise, and fallen again, in the space of a human lifetime.
3. MYTH - Carbon Dioxide levels in our atmosphere at the moment are unprecedented (high).
FACT - Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, currently only 350 parts per million have been over 18 times higher in the past at a time when cars, factories and power stations did not exist — levels rise and fall without mankind's help.
4. MYTH - Mankind is pumping out carbon dioxide at a prodigious rate.
FACT - 96.5% of all carbon dioxide emissions are from natural sources, mankind is responsible for only 3.5%, with 0.6% coming from fuel to move vehicles, and about 1% from fuel to heat buildings. Yet vehicle fuel (petrol) is taxed at 300% while fuel to heat buildings is taxed at 5% even though buildings emit nearly twice as much carbon dioxide!
5. MYTH - Carbon dioxide changes in the atmosphere cause temperature changes on the earth.
FACT - A report in the journal 'Science' in January of this year showed using information from ice cores with high time resolution that since the last ice age, every time when the temperature and carbon dioxide levels have shifted, the carbon dioxide change happened AFTER the temperature change, so that man-made global warming theory has put effect before cause — this shows that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a futile King Canute exercise! What's more, both water vapour and methane are far more powerful greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide but they are ignored.
6. MYTH - Reducing car use will cut carbon dioxide levels and save the planet
FACT - The planet does not need saving, but taking this on anyway, removing every car from every road in every country overnight would NOT produce any change in the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere, as can be seen using the numbers from Fact 4, and in any case it is pointless trying to alter climate by changing carbon dioxide levels as the cause and effect is the other way round — it is changes in the activity of the Sun that cause temperature changes on earth, with any temperature rise causing carbon dioxide to de-gas from the oceans.
7. MYTH - The recent wet weather and flooding was caused by mankind through 'global warming'
FACT - Extreme weather correlates with the cycle of solar activity, not carbon dioxide emissions or political elections, the recent heavy rainfall in winter and spring is a perfect example of this — it occurred at solar maximum at a time when solar maxima are very intense — this pattern may well repeat every 11 years until about 2045.
8. MYTH - The climate change levy, petrol duty, CO2 car tax and workplace parking charges are justifiable environmental taxes.
FACT - As carbon dioxide emissions from cars and factories does not have any measurable impact on climate, these taxes are 'just another tax' on enterprise and mobility, and have no real green credentials.
9. MYTH - Scientists on the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issue reports that say 'global warming' is real and that we must do something now.
FACT - Scientists draft reports for the IPCC, but the IPCC are bureaucrats appointed by governments, in fact many scientists who contribute to the reports disagree with the 'spin' that the IPCC and media put on their findings.
The latest report suggests that the next 100 years might see a temperature change of 6 Celsius yet a Lead Author for the IPCC (Dr John Christy UAH/NASA) has pointed out that the scenarios with the fastest warming rates were added to the report at a late stage, at the request of a few governments — in other words the scientists were told what to do by politicians.
10. MYTH - There are only a tiny handful of maverick scientists who dispute that man-made global warming theory is true.
FACT - There are nearly 18,000 signatures from scientists worldwide on a petition called The Oregon Petition which says that there is no evidence for man-made global warming theory nor for any impact from mankind's activities on climate.
Many scientists believe that the Kyoto agreement is a total waste of time and one of the biggest political scams ever perpetrated on the public ... as H L Mencken said "the fundamental aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary" ... the desire to save the world usually fronts a desire to rule it.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
States face deeper and deeper cuts to balance budgets
The following piece appeared in the International Herald Tribune. Of course this is no surprise to me for years we have been saying that government entities and programs from public schools to the federal government have a spending problem and not a funding problem. The employees of these governments services gain more from said services than the people they are to serve. For years said services have spent irresponsibly and passed budgets with excessive salaries, benefits and pensions. All on the backs of taxpayers and the taxpayers' children for generations to come. This was all done in the name of greed and not in the name of accountability to the people said services are to serve. The taxpayers of public schools, cities, counties, states and the federal government now live to serve said governments instead of vice-versa. We are under constant threat of the cutting of said services unless we pass taxes to fund their demand for excessive salaries, benefits and pensions.
Was the revolution from England for naught as our government bodies have become exactly what we fought against, self-serving bloated bureaucracies.
Cathy
States face deeper and deeper cuts to balance budgets
By Jennifer Steinhauer
Monday, November 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES: Two short months ago, lawmakers in California struggled to close a $15 billion hole in the state budget. It was among the biggest deficits in state history. Now the state faces an additional $11 billion shortfall and may be unable to pay its bills this spring.
The astonishing decline in revenues is without modern precedent here, but California is hardly alone. A majority of U.S. states - many with budgets already full of deep cuts and dependent on raiding rainy-day funds or tax increases - are scrambling to find ways to get through the rest of the year without hacking apart vital services or raising taxes.
Some governors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and David Paterson in New York, have called special legislative sessions to deal with the crisis. Others are demanding hiring freezes and across-the-board cuts. A few states are finding their unemployment insurance funds running dry, just as the ranks of out-of-work residents spike.
The plunging revenues - the result of an unusual assemblage of personal, sales, capital gains and corporate taxes falling significantly - have poked holes in budgets that are just weeks and months old and that came about only after difficult legislative sessions.
"The fiscal landscape," said H.D. Palmer at the California Department of Finance, "is fundamentally altered from where it was six weeks ago."
In Michigan, to reduce overtime costs, fewer streets will be salted this winter. In Ohio, where the unemployment rate is more than 7 percent, the state may need a federal loan for the first time in 26 years to cover unemployment costs. In Nevada, which is almost totally dependent on sales taxes and gambling revenue, a health administrator said the state may be unable to pay claims in a few months.
In California, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and state legislators are preparing to do battle over a proposed 1.5-cent sales tax increase, while in New York, Paterson, a Democrat, has proposed $5.2 billion worth of cuts, principally to Medicaid and education.
Even states where until recent months natural resource production has provided a buffer - and fat surpluses - are experiencing a sudden reversal of fortune as oil prices have declined.
"Frankly, I thought 2001 was really awful," said Scott Pattison, the executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. "It is even worse now."
He added, "This fiscal year will be really bad, and what is unfortunate is that I can't see how 2010 won't be bad too."
In keeping with recent economic trends, the states with the worst budget problems are those where large housing booms morphed into a large-scale mortgage crisis over the past two years.
The current-year budget gap in Rhode Island represents more than 11 percent of the state's entire general fund, in large part because of the high number of subprime loans. The story is similar in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada.
In addition, the crisis in the financial markets had immediate and widespread impact on state budgets. States have lost revenues from capital gains taxes and bonuses that have evaporated, and growing job losses have reduced state income taxes while draining unemployment funds.
"What we are seeing is when fewer people are working there is less income tax and less spending," said Keith Dailey, a spokesman for Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, a Democrat.
Americans have also stopped shopping, which has hurt states that are heavily reliant on sales taxes, like Florida and Arizona. States that rely on tourism, like Nevada and Hawaii, have also been hurt by less consumer spending.
Further, the national credit crunch makes it harder for businesses to get loans, which trickles back into losses to states. When California was temporarily unable to gain access to the credit markets in the days leading up to the federal bailout package, state budget directors across the country noted the moment with horror.
The state's brief inability to pay bills because it could not get credit - California, like many states, regularly borrows when it is short of cash in anticipation of revenue later - has since been largely interpreted as an outgrowth of the much larger national and international credit crisis. Still, some budget experts said the problem could be a harbinger: Cities and counties with poor credit ratings could be cut off in the coming year, and there could be higher costs for issuing bonds.
"Just the fact that this was an issue at all is a big concern for every state," Pattison said. "Long-term bonds may be at risk. And I think states are going to have to accept that cost of debt is going to be higher."
In most states, budget directors and legislators have said that tax increases are not likely. A notable exception is California, where Schwarzenegger is seeking a 1.5-point increase in the state's sales tax, although he is unlikely to get the necessary approval of Republican legislators.
In Oregon, moreover, Governor Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat, has proposed a $1 billion economic stimulus plan centered on infrastructure improvements, which he envisions would be paid for by raising the state's gasoline tax by 2 cents per gallon and increasing a host of vehicle fees.
When many regular legislative sessions resume in January, some states will be more likely to look to rainy-day funds, when they are available, and deeper cuts to services, most notably to K-12 education - kindergarten through 12th grade - which is generally a last-resort option among lawmakers.
Fewer than a dozen states have remained in the black this fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning economic research group in Washington that tracks state budgets, and they are largely those in the West with oil and mineral resources at the ready.
"The oil-producing states were doing very well with oil at $120 a barrel," said Iris Lav, the deputy director of the center. "They may not do as well now."
More generally, Lav said, state budgets are "moving from the damaged to the devastated."
Was the revolution from England for naught as our government bodies have become exactly what we fought against, self-serving bloated bureaucracies.
Cathy
States face deeper and deeper cuts to balance budgets
By Jennifer Steinhauer
Monday, November 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES: Two short months ago, lawmakers in California struggled to close a $15 billion hole in the state budget. It was among the biggest deficits in state history. Now the state faces an additional $11 billion shortfall and may be unable to pay its bills this spring.
The astonishing decline in revenues is without modern precedent here, but California is hardly alone. A majority of U.S. states - many with budgets already full of deep cuts and dependent on raiding rainy-day funds or tax increases - are scrambling to find ways to get through the rest of the year without hacking apart vital services or raising taxes.
Some governors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and David Paterson in New York, have called special legislative sessions to deal with the crisis. Others are demanding hiring freezes and across-the-board cuts. A few states are finding their unemployment insurance funds running dry, just as the ranks of out-of-work residents spike.
The plunging revenues - the result of an unusual assemblage of personal, sales, capital gains and corporate taxes falling significantly - have poked holes in budgets that are just weeks and months old and that came about only after difficult legislative sessions.
"The fiscal landscape," said H.D. Palmer at the California Department of Finance, "is fundamentally altered from where it was six weeks ago."
In Michigan, to reduce overtime costs, fewer streets will be salted this winter. In Ohio, where the unemployment rate is more than 7 percent, the state may need a federal loan for the first time in 26 years to cover unemployment costs. In Nevada, which is almost totally dependent on sales taxes and gambling revenue, a health administrator said the state may be unable to pay claims in a few months.
In California, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and state legislators are preparing to do battle over a proposed 1.5-cent sales tax increase, while in New York, Paterson, a Democrat, has proposed $5.2 billion worth of cuts, principally to Medicaid and education.
Even states where until recent months natural resource production has provided a buffer - and fat surpluses - are experiencing a sudden reversal of fortune as oil prices have declined.
"Frankly, I thought 2001 was really awful," said Scott Pattison, the executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. "It is even worse now."
He added, "This fiscal year will be really bad, and what is unfortunate is that I can't see how 2010 won't be bad too."
In keeping with recent economic trends, the states with the worst budget problems are those where large housing booms morphed into a large-scale mortgage crisis over the past two years.
The current-year budget gap in Rhode Island represents more than 11 percent of the state's entire general fund, in large part because of the high number of subprime loans. The story is similar in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada.
In addition, the crisis in the financial markets had immediate and widespread impact on state budgets. States have lost revenues from capital gains taxes and bonuses that have evaporated, and growing job losses have reduced state income taxes while draining unemployment funds.
"What we are seeing is when fewer people are working there is less income tax and less spending," said Keith Dailey, a spokesman for Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, a Democrat.
Americans have also stopped shopping, which has hurt states that are heavily reliant on sales taxes, like Florida and Arizona. States that rely on tourism, like Nevada and Hawaii, have also been hurt by less consumer spending.
Further, the national credit crunch makes it harder for businesses to get loans, which trickles back into losses to states. When California was temporarily unable to gain access to the credit markets in the days leading up to the federal bailout package, state budget directors across the country noted the moment with horror.
The state's brief inability to pay bills because it could not get credit - California, like many states, regularly borrows when it is short of cash in anticipation of revenue later - has since been largely interpreted as an outgrowth of the much larger national and international credit crisis. Still, some budget experts said the problem could be a harbinger: Cities and counties with poor credit ratings could be cut off in the coming year, and there could be higher costs for issuing bonds.
"Just the fact that this was an issue at all is a big concern for every state," Pattison said. "Long-term bonds may be at risk. And I think states are going to have to accept that cost of debt is going to be higher."
In most states, budget directors and legislators have said that tax increases are not likely. A notable exception is California, where Schwarzenegger is seeking a 1.5-point increase in the state's sales tax, although he is unlikely to get the necessary approval of Republican legislators.
In Oregon, moreover, Governor Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat, has proposed a $1 billion economic stimulus plan centered on infrastructure improvements, which he envisions would be paid for by raising the state's gasoline tax by 2 cents per gallon and increasing a host of vehicle fees.
When many regular legislative sessions resume in January, some states will be more likely to look to rainy-day funds, when they are available, and deeper cuts to services, most notably to K-12 education - kindergarten through 12th grade - which is generally a last-resort option among lawmakers.
Fewer than a dozen states have remained in the black this fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning economic research group in Washington that tracks state budgets, and they are largely those in the West with oil and mineral resources at the ready.
"The oil-producing states were doing very well with oil at $120 a barrel," said Iris Lav, the deputy director of the center. "They may not do as well now."
More generally, Lav said, state budgets are "moving from the damaged to the devastated."
Monday, November 17, 2008
I know it was too good to be true.
I should have known it was too good to be true. We received our property tax bill and our taxes went up 500 dollars. We figured with the cut in the education tax rate we would be paying less taxes. But no.... our assessment went up 160%. Absolutely amazing! The explanation we received is as follows.
"Their explanation to us was that they have changed the building lot valuation from $55,000 to $110,000. per lot, for the area that includes Winter, Pinnacle, Glidden, Barton, Croydon TP from Winter to the 4 Corners and Lovering Hill Roads. Also they have raised the land valuations on Old Springfield Rd.. I'm told that the land/building lot valuations in those areas were $55,000 for first acre and $2,000 for each additional acre in the building lots. Large tracts are handled a bit differently.
So apparently the new formula is now $110,000 up from $55,000. Their explanation to us was that this change occurred due to several recent high priced land sales that have occurred in the area described above. Some of these were land exchanges involved in settling the Ruger Estate, sold by the Ruger Company and land sold by the Ruger et al to abutters."
So look out Croydon. They were told to expect appeals....you would think that appeals would not be expected if something fishy were not going on. Also those assessed first get to pay two years higher taxes before everyone else. It is amazing that the assessors and the various governments in their infinite wisdom thought raising taxes in the current state of the economy was a good idea. What a bunch of greedy socialist schmucks.
To fight your assessment
Go on line to the State of NH Board of Tax and Land Appeals
www.state.nh.us/btla
Once on the site click Forms then click " Abatement Application to Municipality" and follow the instructions.
After the review by the Board of Selectmen and their decision, if you are still dissatisfied with the decision you can down load the form " Appeal Form to BTLA"
Cathy
"Their explanation to us was that they have changed the building lot valuation from $55,000 to $110,000. per lot, for the area that includes Winter, Pinnacle, Glidden, Barton, Croydon TP from Winter to the 4 Corners and Lovering Hill Roads. Also they have raised the land valuations on Old Springfield Rd.. I'm told that the land/building lot valuations in those areas were $55,000 for first acre and $2,000 for each additional acre in the building lots. Large tracts are handled a bit differently.
So apparently the new formula is now $110,000 up from $55,000. Their explanation to us was that this change occurred due to several recent high priced land sales that have occurred in the area described above. Some of these were land exchanges involved in settling the Ruger Estate, sold by the Ruger Company and land sold by the Ruger et al to abutters."
So look out Croydon. They were told to expect appeals....you would think that appeals would not be expected if something fishy were not going on. Also those assessed first get to pay two years higher taxes before everyone else. It is amazing that the assessors and the various governments in their infinite wisdom thought raising taxes in the current state of the economy was a good idea. What a bunch of greedy socialist schmucks.
To fight your assessment
Go on line to the State of NH Board of Tax and Land Appeals
www.state.nh.us/btla
Once on the site click Forms then click " Abatement Application to Municipality" and follow the instructions.
After the review by the Board of Selectmen and their decision, if you are still dissatisfied with the decision you can down load the form " Appeal Form to BTLA"
Cathy
Sunday, November 16, 2008
My Favorite Quote
I think the state of education in America would have been a better place if Bob Dole had been elected president. The following is a quote from Bob Dole when he ran for President.
"I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions: If education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dying. To the teachers unions I say: When I am president, I will disregard your political power for the sake of the children, the schools and the nation. I plan to enrich your vocabulary with those words you fear -- school choice, competition and opportunity scholarships -- so that you will join the rest of us in accountability, while others compete with you for the commendable privilege of giving our children a real education."
Teachers and their unions refuse accountability and deny students and parents the civil right to school choice. They care about two things more money and denying parents the right to direct their child's education. We see it right here in Croydon with some of the Newport School employees. Unions and educrats have highjacked the education system. They are rich, powerful and connected they have the funds to manipulate all legislation to their benefit.
Cathy
"I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions: If education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dying. To the teachers unions I say: When I am president, I will disregard your political power for the sake of the children, the schools and the nation. I plan to enrich your vocabulary with those words you fear -- school choice, competition and opportunity scholarships -- so that you will join the rest of us in accountability, while others compete with you for the commendable privilege of giving our children a real education."
Teachers and their unions refuse accountability and deny students and parents the civil right to school choice. They care about two things more money and denying parents the right to direct their child's education. We see it right here in Croydon with some of the Newport School employees. Unions and educrats have highjacked the education system. They are rich, powerful and connected they have the funds to manipulate all legislation to their benefit.
Cathy
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