Exactly. A competent business will budget for the long term, including the times of of shortfalls, lack of usual tax revenue, recession, etc. A government lives from fiscal year to fiscal year, or more rarely, two years at a time, spending all it has and then some. Not smart.
But then, we get the government we deserve, don’t we?
Oregon used to save up for rainy days, but then we started giving tax refunds on the surplus. Eventually the savings dried out.
Oregonians don’t pay sales tax, right?
Do you have a state income tax? How do y’all compensate for that?
~J
We have an income tax.
Oh yeah, and despite all these budget troubles, It will be a cold day in hades before I’d support a sales tax in this State.
Oregon: The only state in the Union that will let you kill yourself, but won’t let you pump your own gas.
Oregon, My Oregon!
**Land of the Empire Builders, Land of the Golden West;
Conquered and held by free men, Fairest and the best.
On-ward and upward ever, Forward and on, and on;
Hail to thee, Land of the Heroes, My Oregon.
Land of the rose and sunshine, Land of the summer’s breeze;
Laden with health and vigor, Fresh from the western seas.
Blest by the blood of martyrs, Land of the setting sun;
Hail to thee, Land of Promise, My Oregon.**
There is state income tax–with plenty of loopholes and “incentives” for corporations, and there is relatively high property tax (some limits were put in place a while back). Because so much of Oregon’s revenue comes from income tax, the high unemployment rate hits the budget hard (and Oregon got hit early with rising unemployment). Granted, the rainy day fund could have been managed better–but lots of people (and many other states) wanted to believe that the stock market would just keep going up. We’ve voted down sales tax multiple times, and we can’t make big business pay their fair share, or else they’ll take their toys and move to another state. Mqeanwhile, in addition to schools closing, seniors and disabled are losing the home care workers they need to continue to live independent lives (which costs the state less then having them in care facilities), the working poor a losing what little health coverage they were getting, psychaitric patients aren’t getting their medications, crimes aren’t being investigated, suspects aren’t being tried, and convicted criminals are being released early.
All that being said–there is no easy solution, no magic button that will fix everything. Plenty of states with both sales and income tax have severe budget problems, and big buisiness is rarely a good citizen. Mostly we just have to weather the bad times. Give to your local food banks, people, or send a check to a low-income clinic.
I hear ya.
In southern California, there’s a bond measure for the schools almost every election. I vote no on each. People say “If we don’t vote for it, the schools won’t get what the kids need!”
I say if we DO vote for it, the kids STILL won’t get what they need. The Los Angeles Unifide School District can’t provide enough books, teachers or classrooms. But their anual budget is well over 8 BILLION dollars. Yeah, I said BILLION!
Somebody is getting rich.
Ah… At least I’m not the only Oregon resident to be disgusted with our current situation. Look at all the money families will be saving though. No need to buy little johnny the sports equipment. Little Suzy doesn’t need a flute so she can be in the band. No reason to save up for a college fund, because Og knows that you’d have to put away more money than Phil Knight has to afford one of our great schools here in the land of the green (grass, not money).
It seems that we always have to add one more tax.
“Oh, we’ll be a little short on money this year? Let’s tax alchohol and ciggarettes some more. Also let’s borrow against the future income from the tabbaco settlement that was supposed to be used to pay for health costs related to smoking.”
We also have many state employees at higher levels who have retired and are collecting from PERS (Public Employee Retirement System) but remain employed by the state as consultants. Which is it, are you retired, or not?
You guys are right about our income tax too. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. We got hit very hard by the recession due to our higher level of tech than many states.
I don’t even know where we could start…
Ohio’s suffering, too. We are finishing this school year, but having to close three buildings for next year to make our budget balance. Now the state’s planning to cut funding for the libraries, too, which is very bad.