December 31, 2003
ANOTHER CRISIS PASSES:
State budgets gain some wiggle room (Dennis Cauchon, 12/31/03, USA TODAY)
State spending rose 4.6% in 2002 while revenue increased only 3%; that forced states to borrow billions of dollars to balance their budgets. But legislators clamped down in 2003. Spending rose only 1.3% in the first nine months of the year while revenue increased 1.5%.The fiscal restraint is paying dividends. For the first time in three years, most legislatures won't have to plug holes in existing budgets this year. Instead, they will focus on next year's budgets, which take effect July 1 in 46 states.
You'll recall that at the beginning of the year it was claimed that the only way to prevent catastrophe was for the Federal government to shovel money to the states. Turns out that if you just don't spend so much money those deficits pretty much take care of themselves. We could use a constitutional amendment to force the Congress to accept the same discipline. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 31, 2003 5:34 PM
Poor Howard Dean. Of all his various hobby horses, you'd think he wouldn't have to worry about losing this one.
Posted by: David Cohen at December 31, 2003 5:47 PMoj:
Why ?
Besides the fact that sometimes organizations must borrow against the future to secure a present good, (whether a family, business, or gov't), in the recent past you've argued rather vociferously that national deficits don't much matter.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at January 2, 2004 7:02 AMThey don't matter in financial terms on the national level, but do matter morally. You should pay your own debts.
Posted by: oj at January 2, 2004 10:02 AM