(Chicago Sun Times) — Gov. Quinn wants to borrow billions of dollars to pay down the state’s operating and pension deficits, a proposal some lawmakers say faces an uphill battle when they return to Springfield Jan. 3 for the lame-duck legislative session. The governor is considering borrowing $15 billion to balance the state’s largest ever […]
(New York Times) — Lawmakers who gathered here for a special session appeared almost certain on Monday night to set aside a package of spending cuts proposed by Gov. David A. Paterson, leaving this year’s state budget hundreds of millions of dollars out of balance as the governor-elect, Andrew M. Cuomo, prepares to take office on Jan. […]
(AJC) — Gov.-elect Nathan Deal will take office facing a sluggish economy, a continuing budget crisis, a financially unstable HOPE scholarship program, a revenue system some say needs updating and an electorate in no mood for anything that smells of a tax increase. He will have to write an $18 billion state budget and likely […]
(Bloomberg) — New York state faces a $315 million budget deficit because tax revenue hasn’t increased as much as projected three months ago, when lawmakers approved the spending plan, the Division of Budget said. Tax collections for this fiscal year are now forecast at $61.4 billion, down $343 million from August estimates, the division said […]
(Bloomberg) – New York Gov. David Paterson said he will dismiss 898 state employees by the end of the year to help achieve the $250 million of work force savings included in this year’s budget. The firings, combined with attrition and early retirements, will eliminate 2,000 jobs to help close the $9.2 billion deficit in […]
(Chicago Sun Times) — Two leading groups fighting violence against women and youth rapped Gov. Quinn Thursday for launching a $50 million anti-violence initiative when Illinois has become the biggest deadbeat state in the country by one new survey. “We are dismayed and disheartened by the governor’s decision to spend $50 million on a new […]
(WSJ) — A new survey of New York State residents underscores just how little the public understands about state spending. Large majorities of New Yorkers believe that state government is too big (57%), support spending cuts (71%) and think “a lot” of taxpayer money is wasted (66%), according to data from a five-state survey on local […]
(Chicago Tribune) — The paper trail of Illinois’ budget crisis reaches hundreds of letters high, each pleading missive an example of a state too broke to pay its bills. The disabled soon won’t have a place to live. The drug-addicted could be turned away for treatment. Prison inmates will run out of toilet paper. The […]
(AJC) — The cash-strapped state Department of Transportation must set aside $75 million in its $1.8 billion budget this year to pay for cost overruns on projects it rushed to bid during the flush years of the construction boom, the agency’s board learned in a briefing Wednesday. At the time it approved the projects, the […]
(Chicago Tribune) — Peter Anthony, president and CEO of UGN Inc., an auto parts-maker based in Tinley Park, is weighing where to invest $14.5 million on a plant expansion next year that will create 30 jobs. Anthony is juggling three eager suitors — Indiana, Kentuckyand Tennessee — waiting to see which jobs-hungry state will offer up the […]
(Washington Business Journal) — Maryland closed fiscal year 2010 with a $344 million surplus after the recession’s impact on tax revenue, while still harsh, was milder than expected. The state collected $12.6 billion in taxes during the year that ended June 30. That was $183.7 million more than was forecast, but still the third-worst year-over-year […]
(Chicago Sun Times) — The state’s miserable bond rating has driven up borrowing costs for state government by more than $500 million since last year, a government watchdog group says. The nonpartisan, Chicago-based Civic Federation analyzed the near-record borrowing that the state has undertaken since last September and looked at similar borrowing during the same […]