State credit gets downgraded, governor's (Arnie's) car tax cuts blamed

Wall Street analysts say that despite recall, little has changed

SACRAMENTO -- California's already battered credit rating suffered another downgrade Tuesday from a Wall Street rating agency that criticized Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to cut car taxes without any plan to pay for the move.

Moody's Investors Service took California's bond rating another step closer to junk bond status, noting the state's deficit will balloon by $7.5 billion this year as a result of the car tax reduction, if no other steps are taken.

Agency analysts also point out that little has changed since the Oct. 7 recall election. Despite the election of Schwarzenegger, the state has a "continuing inability to reach political consensus on solutions to its budget and financial problems."

(snip)

On another front, officials from cities and counties are also growing uneasy about the budget because of money they lost when the car taxes were cut.

Car tax revenue is used by local governments to pay for a variety of services, including public safety. As the governor and the Legislature debate the bigger picture budget questions, the growing cash crunch facing local officials is getting overshadowed.

more…
http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~2425~1821100,00.html

I cannot wait to see one of those petitions.

So far the Gropinator has managed to break several campaign pledges and keep one--the easy one to keep, and the hard one to live with. I'll bet that nincompoop is going to pieces now that reality (of all things) has raised its implacable head.

What a moran...

:nuke:

http://www.arnoldwatch.org

Corporate Accountability
(snip)

Governor Schwarzenegger tells us that the solution to California’s biggest problems lies in making California better for business. But Arnold was not elected just to represent businesses; the Governor represents the people who work at businesses, buy from businesses and invest in businesses. He also has to represent people who get marketed to by businesses, cheated by businesses and hurt by businesses. Through the eyes of big business, a governor sees less regulation, less litigation and less corporate responsibility, but Schwarzenegger was not elected to wear those glasses.

What Arnold Says About Corporate Accountability (vs) What ArnoldWatch Sees
"Unchain business from over taxation and over regulation." Arnold wants more tax breaks for big corporations - Californians already fund billions of dollars annually in such subsidies - and could threaten important rules that protect the public’s health and safety from pollution, dangerous products and hazardous worksites.
"California's runaway litigation system has become a trial lawyer's paradise - encouraging frivolous lawsuits and outrageous settlements that are bleeding money from businesses" Arnold wants to take away the legal rights of injured consumers to hold corporations accountable for wrongdoing.

In reality, California already has some of the nation’s most restrictive laws that bar consumers from taking businesses to court, including limits on liability for hospitals, insurance companies and manufacturers.
(snip)

And he will be Emperor in 2017, just about the time the Imperial Subjects of Amerika will be waking up to the fact that freedom and liberty have been traded in on a New Model Empire.

And of course Bushevik Ahnold gives them plenty of cover as Emperor Im-a-Bushevik-but-my-name-isnt-Bush-so-stop-saying-we-are-a-hereditary-Empire.

Oh my yes, Ahnold's usefullness to the Busheviks, not to mention his Reaganesque ignorance, is unbounded...

Corporate media has installed a subterfuge to subdue the California electorate. Keep Cali busy dealing with Arnie while the rest of us thump the others.

It seems kind of like a football game to me. Us people in Cali might not have as much time to keep track of * we now have to train some of our efforts on this pseudo populist

A bond rating drop (bonds are how Schwarzenegger wants to pull us through the next budget crisis go-around) means more debt and a mounting burden for each following budget. Add this to the loss of car resistration fees ("car tax" was a Repug line to demonize the funding source)which were earmarked for basic services and the possible flip-flop on school funding....CA is in big sh*t.

that's how the game is played -- so play it and play it very, very well.

That's why CNN crowned him gubernator long before the election.

Gov. Davis if feeling right about now. Sort of bittersweet I suppose, his state is going down the old crapper but he is no longer a target.