Some Perspective on Kentucky's Budget
Kentucky is projected to face a $456 million budget shortfall this year. New York lost over a third of that in one moment.
From Best of the Web Today on Monday:
Easy Come, Easy Go
From the Associated Press:Gov. David Paterson said Friday that the loss of tax revenue from just six Goldman Sachs' executives will cost New York $178 million.The executives complied with the urging of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and others who said in November that major Wall Street companies benefiting from federal bailouts shouldn't pay out the usual huge bonuses to executives.Paterson says it is the right thing to do, but the result is a further hit to the fiscal crisis of state government."Things could go even more south in a big hurry," Paterson told reporters.He said Wall Street firms receiving federal bailout did the right thing by forgoing bonuses to their executives, but that has had a devastating effect on New York's fiscal crisis because Wall Street taxes accounted for 30 percent of state revenue in the last fiscal quarter."I think it was the right urge," he said, but "the state lost $178 million in that moment."That's the trouble with waging class war against the rich: The more decisively you defeat them, the less are the spoils.
