On Jun 4, 7:45*pm, Gene wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:09:25 GMT, "Steve"
wrote:



On *4-Jun-2009, Gene wrote:

I'm damn glad NC took the money. State employees have already been
told that we wouldn't have gotten a pay check last month if it weren't
for the stimulus package (even though those of us, still with a job,
were subject to pay cuts and forced furloughs).

****ing borrowed money down the drain on state "employees" is not economic
stimulus. It's simply exacerbating (for those in Maryland, that is not a
sexual term) the problem that already existed.

NC does not run a deficit budget. I suppose we could have closed the
state for a couple of months..... but that's kinda the problem. State
government knew things were really bad, but when the (lack of) tax
receipts came in, in April, they found out they were really in deep
doo-doo....


What most don't realize is that by accepting and spending the
education stimulus money, the state is signing up for more spending in
the coming years. That's the main problem with the 700 million that
Sanford was having an issue with. He wanted to use it to pay down
debt from building schools, but the feds wouldn't let him do that.
The feds have strings attached to that money that says if you take it
and spend it in certain ways, including paying for teachers, you
*must* continue to fund that spending at 75% of the level in the
following years when there is NO federal money coming in. Problem is,
there will be no state money to fund that, so you're signing yourself
up to pay out money that you don't have.

What will end up happening is that the money won't be used to pay
teachers, but will be used for other programs that make little sense,
but don't have the future funding requirements, like after school
programs. The local school administrators have already warned that
teachers would still be let go, even with the stimulus money. They're
already setting the stage.