$262 million. That’s how much less Georgia state coffers took in as compared to Jan. 2008. According to Senator Jack Hill’s weekly report;
Georgia’s January Revenues continued a downward trend coming up short by $262M compared to January, 2008. This dropped the year-to-date revenue collections to a minus 4.8%. The current revenue estimate for FY2009 is based on a -4.4% decrease, so there is a deficit building. This is a serious deterioration that is certainly validated by the doubling of unemployment claims and an 8% unemployment rate.
Individual Income taxes were down 13.3%. Overall Sales taxes were down 8.4%. Fuel taxes continued to decline with excise taxes falling by 1.7% and fuel sales taxes decreasing by 3.1%. Corporate taxes declined by $30M or117%.
YTD Individual Income taxes are showing a -5% decrease. Sales taxes are down for the year at -4.2%. Fuel taxes in both categories are negative, excise taxes by 7.6% and sales taxes by 3.7%, for a total of $32M.
While the Federal stimulus bill may offer some relief, there are sober decisions to be made concerning the 2009 Amended and the 2010 Budgets as well as revenue outlook. Widespread furloughs and severe service cutbacks or suspensions are now within the realm of possibility.
So what is the solution to Georgia’s budget woes? I have a few ideas (found below the fold).
1. Only 2 items on the menu in the Sloppy Folyd Cafetaria: Beans and rice and Rice and beans.
2. Get Jenny to trade in some of Jon’s fiat money for all of the gold on the capital dome.
3. Make Georgia Tech UGA’s Atlanta campus. Then you need only one set of university leadership and Tech fans finally have a football team they can be proud of.
4. Sell the naming rights for the city of Atlanta. I mean who wouldn’t want to live in BillGatesburg?
5. Require Georgia school children to have to PUSH the bus to school. Saves on gas and the need to hire PE teachers.
6. Sell Dade County to Tennessee and we can also end the whole border war.
7. Make Buzz pay Georgia Tech for the use of his name (assuming we decided against #3).
8. Replace the Georgia Corporation for Public Broadcasting with Twitter.
9. Sell the Speaker’s and Lt. Governor’s expensive wood gavels and replace then with cheaper, plastic hammers that “squeak” when you bang them.
10. Outlaw DWS (Driving While Stupid) on I-285 and start watching the money roll in.
I will now take your suggestions.
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Open up the Governor’s Mansion as a high rate Bed and Breakfast
Or see if that woman who owned that house in Sugarloaf wants to open a Franchise there.
Suggestions, you say?
Cut 30% from law enforcement and courts by passing a statute similar to MA, creating incentives to all police, sheriff, and troopers to make marijuana arrests for possession of once once or less the lowest enforceable priority, removing all penalties and replacing with a $100 civil fine.
Triple the fines for jaywalking.
Allow Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages by all licensed establishments.
Eliminate subsidies.
That ought to give everyone breathing room.
That way we can finally join the 21st Century. I can get us in the club, I promise!
Care for a slice of sky pie?
I think jaywalking should be legal. Getting hit by a car should be a crime.
The State of Georgia could readily remedy this situation without passing another tax bill, IF THEY REALLY WANT TO.
They don’t.
‘Course as a “rule of law” conservative, when’s the last time a politician has been arrested for jaywalking? Hey, as long as the law is on the books right?
#1 As long as it isn’t genetically modified rice.
#2 Awesome! Are Jon and Jenny becoming the conscience of the Unamind…
#3 Shep, you funny…
#4 Bill Gates…he’s sleeping with Rockefeller and Monsanto…So it’d be more fun to call Atlanta: Gaymonfeller….
#5 If they push the busses it’ll help shrink their “thanks to genetically modified food and high fructose corn syrup” obesity.
#6 Bye Dade….
Jason,
I don’t have enough fiat currency to buy the gold off the dome, but good call. I love the way you are thinking.
Why not eliminate the useless and large DHR. B.J. Walker can go find gainful employment in another state. Huge waste of taxpayers money.
I love the idea of selling a county, How many Counties do you think we could actually sell? What about Cobb? The State of TN has no Income tax. That would be a really nice change.
They really don’t have to do anything extraordinary to pull in $1 to $2 billion, by my reckoning.
What seems shocking that it looks from here to be a $4 billion to $5 billion hole.
BTW how’s funding that $20 billion off-the-books liability for retiree/employee medical care “out of future revenue” going? (What all GA members I spoke to claimed they were going to do.)
If we cut DHR, that’s an easy 2 billion out of the budget…..
It looks like they’ve solved the problem! Just take a break for a few months, then reconvene after the federal government gives Georgia bailout money! Wheeeeeeee!!!
Yea, I guess everything is fixed and nothing else is needed to be done? Which goes to show… spending money is all these jokers know how to do… pathetic. It’s like a employee that only shows up to work on payday.
3. Make Georgia Tech UGA’s Atlanta campus. Then you need only one set of university leadership and Tech fans finally have a football team they can be proud of.
Fine. All those nice-co-eds will spend time on Tech campus learning the abacus.
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