Here’s a look at some of this week’s most interesting, and consequential, budget- and economy-related issues in the 50 states:
Last week, an article in the Philadelphia Daily News lamented that stimulus money awarded to Philadelphia has not been very stimulating; unemployment remains high and it has not able to use the money to help its budget problems.
In an editorial last week, the Las Vegas Review Journal pointed out that when government can’t pay its bills, it borrows more money. A business, however, can’t “put payroll on a credit card for long before inviting bankruptcy.”
According to an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland “said he’s disappointed” that money from the stimulus package went to a company that outsourced work to an overseas call center.
On Monday, the Virginian Pilot reported that taxpayers paid $60 million for a railway in Portsmouth, VA that was completed in December. Seven months after its completion, the track has yet to see a train.
The Indianapolis Star published an editorial this week saying the U.S. government can take steps to reduce its debt load now or be forced to “to take much more drastic and painful steps in coming decades.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer made the case for passage of the $26 billion state aid package saying it will help Pennsylvania and other states avoid deeper cuts in services and layoffs.
