Saturday, July 05, 2003
Bush's America
States are feeling the crush as the economy remains in the slumps.
To deal with the shortfall, [Nevada] is introducing a novel live entertainment tax of 10%, which will apply to the state's brothels, legal in 10 of Nevada's 17 counties. The state's many strip clubs would also have to pay the tax.
Elsewhere, New York's police officers are leading the drive to plug a potential $4bn deficit in the city's budget, fining anyone they can for anything they can think of. One man was ticketed for sitting on a milk crate outside a shop; the citation was "unauthorized use of a crate".
Alabama has been facing a deficit of $700m and now the governor, Bob Riley, a conservative Republican, has announced the biggest tax changes for 100 years.
There are also budget crises in Oregon, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
In Connecticut, the Republican governor, John Rowland, is now running the state by executive order, making ad hoc decisions on which of the state's mounting bills get paid until a budget is agreed.
But it is in California that the meltdown is most spectacular. The state has a deficit of $32bn and desperately needs to agree a new budget.
More details here.
posted by chris at 3:05 PM
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