The fiscal party was lovely while it lasted: fat revenue surpluses for the state, rebate checks and tax cuts for taxpayers, and for workers, rising wages -- a byproduct of record low unemployment. For eight years, the state's biggest problem was how much extra money to hand out and to whom.
Now comes the hangover. The 2002-03 budget, just four months old, has a hole that may be between $600 million and $1 billion deep. The state has taken in $152 million less than projected since July, and revenues are expected to fall short by an additional $50 million in November.
The problem is not Minnesota's alone. About 44 states now project budget shortfalls. Of those, 28 either have ordered emergency budget cuts, such as spending and hiring freezes, or are crafting such measures. Special legislative sessions have been called by the governors of Iowa, Nebraska, Connecticut, Alabama, Arizona, Florida and Hawaii.
Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura hasn't ordered any emergency budget actions, nor is he said to be considering a special session.
And that, former Gov. Arne Carlson said, may be a mistake.
"I'm surprised we haven't taken even those elementary budget measures," said Carlson, a veteran of the last recession that hit the state, in 1991, just as he was taking office. "I would do it right now. They've already lost nearly six months -- one-fourth of the budget cycle. The longer you wait, the worse it will be. The governor has got to show some leadership. This is where you start to earn your pay."
Others not waiting
"Most states are doing this on their own -- they're not waiting for their legislatures to go into session," said Robin Prunty, a director in the public finance department of Standard and Poor's who has researched financial trends in the 50 states.
Prunty said that Minnesota, with $1 billion in budget reserves, is in a relatively strong fiscal position compared with other states.
However, Minnesota can't rely on its reserves alone. "If you spend down your reserves to solve what might be ongoing budget problems, the implication is you're just sending the bill to the next governor and Legislature," Carlson said. . "And it sends a signal of instability to bond houses."
Action taken in some states has been dramatic, even among those with sizable budget reserves. Georgia's governor has asked agencies to trim 2002 budgets by 2.5 percent and 2003 budgets by 5 percent, despite the state's $1.8 billion reserve. Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia have delayed or canceled capital projects. California, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina and Virginia all have instituted hiring freezes or other budgetary restrictions, according to a budget report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
To deal with a $600 million shortfall, Ohio's governor has ordered across-the-board cutbacks and said the state may have to close at least one prison. Iowa's governor has proposed a 4.3 percent across-the-board cut.
Minnesota Finance Commissioner Pam Wheelock said the administration is considering a range of options, but hasn't directed agencies to take any action.
She said that, "at some point," Ventura may want to order agencies to limit purchases and freeze hiring.
The problem, she said, is that the bulk of the state's expenditures -- such as K-12 expenses -- are mandated by law and cannot be altered at the discretion of the governor alone.
Measures that are within Ventura's discretion -- hiring freezes, agency spending freezes, travel restrictions -- wouldn't be enough to solve the state's projected shortfall, Wheelock said, although they continue to be evaluated.
"The easy solutions are gone," she said. "We need permanent adjustments to the budget, and that requires legislative action."
Ventura spokesman John Wodele said discussions on emergency budget measures are "very, very preliminary. It would be prudent on the part of [department] managers to look at what could be trimmed, but we have not gone into any detail yet."
State Planning Director Dean Barkley said Minnesota is better prepared than other states. "We don't think we need to do [budget cuts] yet. We're trying to be thoughtful rather than just react," he said.
Pressures mounting
The fiscal pressures are real and mounting almost by the day. The October revenue report showed a $53 million drop in tax revenues below what had been forecast. Most troubling, State Economist Tom Stinson said, is that income tax revenues had dropped in October. That, coupled with a national unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, he said, paints a picture that is "absolutely depressing."
State unemployment figures won't be out until midweek, he said, but Minnesota has lost 19,000 jobs since May -- 8,000 of those in August alone. He said he wouldn't be surprised if the figure for September were even higher.
If such trends continue, "we're facing a lot more serious change to the forecast and a deeper recession than most people were thinking even at the first of October," Stinson said.
Art Rolnick, research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and a member of the governor's Council of Economic Advisors, said the economy probably will remain sluggish until the nation's war against terrorism is resolved. While several fundamental indicators look good -- worker productivity was up nationally in the third quarter and the banking industry remains strong -- business investment might lag until terrorism fears are eased, he said.
In the meantime, "what to do now becomes a political question more than an economic one," Rolnick said. The state's leaders must make value judgments about where to cut, how much to tap state reserve funds and even what taxes to increase to cover any shortfalls.
Prunty said that as far as bond houses are concerned, "one path is not more desirable than another. We are indifferent to whether it's spending cuts or revenue enhancers. What we want is some sense that there is attention to the forecast. The longer you wait to implement fiscal restrictions, the less effective they are." Keeping bond raters happy is a major concern for states like Minnesota, which doesn't want to jeopardize the triple-A rating that allows it to borrow at the lowest rates.
Those states that rely on a combination of cuts, possible tax increases and a prudent use of cash reserves will weather the economic storm best, Prunty said.
Carlson said Ventura should try to put a package together soon -- but not on his own. "We made a lot of mistakes in '91," Carlson said, referring to early budget cuts he attempted that legislators resisted.
Instead, he recommended bringing legislative leaders together as soon as the state's November budget forecast is in and the size of the projected shortfall known.
"I would tell them, 'You approved this budget as well as I did, so we're all in this soup together.' Get a pre-agreement on spending cuts, tax increases and some judicious use of the reserve -- maybe a couple of hundred million -- and call a special session for next month."
The regular legislative session doesn't start until Jan. 29 and can run into May -- too long, Carlson contends, to wait for budgetary action and too close to next year's elections. By then, nearly half of the two-year budget cycle will have elapsed, he said, necessitating even more painful cuts for the second half.
"Ultimately, the responsibility rests with the governor," Carlson said. "He's got the staff, the resources and the ability to marshall public opinion. He's got to lead."
earl / nexabit says hi
One of the most entertaining, not to mention musically exciting jam-groove bands that has emerged in the 90s is the MA-based yeP!. It appears that there is a certain degree of uncertainty about the bands's future, but instead of bemoaning that fact, fans can check out the band's latest, two-CD set, Live Bosco's Magic Shop (AKOPOP). The album contains a diverse mix of live cuts that capture the spontaneity of the band's live show. You can hear song teases such as "I Love Rock And Roll," "Llama," "Alabama Song" and other snippets when you least expect it. Sure, there are a few bizarre moments on the disc, but they perfectly capture the band's zany, off-kilter humor. Songs like the ten-minute Lisa Needs A Dog and the superb Son Rise show yeP!'s class, while the seventeen-minute Chaos and the twenty-one minute extravaganza Bosco show its incredible musical vision and immense potential. This is fun and original stuff that is not the least bit commercial. Highly recommended, especially if you like Phish!
seventh post homiez. props to the unemployed nexabit gang!
you really can call me earl too.
After publicly renouncing her guilty plea minutes after entering it in court last week, Sara Jane Olson restated the plea Tuesday to the satisfaction of the judge who had reprimanded her for the disavowal.
During a packed 45-minute hearing, Olson appeared shaken and needed a 10-minute meeting with her lawyers before she could answer Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler. But she still momentarily flashed her characteristic vehemence.
"Your honor, I want to make it clear I did not make those bombs, possess those bombs or place those bombs," said Olson, of St. Paul. "Under the concept of aiding and abetting, I plead guilty."
"You are indeed guilty?" Fidler asked.
"Yes."
Thus, for the second time in less than a week, Olson pleaded guilty to committing terrorist acts in 1975, a crime that could send her to prison for five years to the rest of her life.
Fidler had ordered Olson to restate her plea after she defiantly renounced it outside the courtroom last week.
In court Tuesday, Olson shook her head and her eyes briefly filled with tears as she sat facing the judge.
"You wish your plea to stand?" he asked again.
"All right," she mumbled.
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes."
Olson, a onetime radical fugitive turned St. Paul homemaker, had little to say after Fidler accepted the plea.
"I don't want to" talk, she said as she left the courthouse. "I'm done talkin'."
Prosecutors followed suit. "If they don't comment, neither do we," spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told reporters. "It's a wrap, people."
Last week, Olson pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to use pipe bombs to blow up two Los Angeles police cruisers in 1975 under a plea agreement in which prosecutors agreed to drop three other charges.
Minutes later, she stood before cameras and microphones and declared, "I pleaded to something of which I'm not guilty."
In court, she signed a statement saying, "She is pleading guilty because she is in truth and in fact guilty."
Not a 'way station'
Fidler made it clear Tuesday that he was furious about her declaration of innocence, noting that he had made it clear last week that she couldn't disavow her plea outside of court.
"A guilty plea is not a way station on the way to a press conference to declare your innocence," Fidler said. To ensure the integrity of the criminal justice system, "she must make a choice," he said. "She cannot have it both ways."
Tony Serra, one of Olson's lawyers, said that her "choice of words was inartful and imprecise." He said she should have said only what she said Tuesday, "that she did not, make, plant or physically possess those bombs."
She pleaded to aiding and abetting a conspiracy to plant the bombs by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a violent radical sect best remembered for kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. Under California law, a defendant guilty of aiding and abetting a crime is considered a principal in the crime, even if there is no direct physical link to it, Fidler said.
Olson and her attorneys said she agreed to a plea bargain more than two years after being arrested near her St. Paul house because she believed she couldn't get a fair trial on charges of committing terrorism in the political climate after Sept. 11.
Fidler said he didn't buy that argument, which he said was made "without any factual support. No jurors were questioned, so there is no way of knowing what was on their minds."
But, in an interview Tuesday, Serra revived the argument to counter prosecutors' boast last week that they had an airtight case. "In this climate of opinion they had every right to be confident of winning," he said. "They milked the domestic terrorist angle since day one. Tragically, fortuitously for them, it bore fruit."
After Sept. 11, the government complex in downtown Los Angeles has been cordoned off with concrete crash barriers, metal detectors and armed guards.
The defense and prosecution wrangled over Olson's likely prison term. The two criminal counts that she pleaded guilty to carry a sentence of 10 years to life, to be served consecutively. Olson's attorneys said they think she can be paroled after serving five years and four months, "and we believe either directly or indirectly the prosecution will seek to influence the parole board," Serra said.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Latin said prosecutors don't agree with that interpretation, although he didn't say what argument he would make before the parole board. Fidler simply noted that both sides differ and that he wanted "Mrs. Olson to understand that none of this could work out the way she hopes it could work out."
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7.
Olson remains free on $1million bail, raised by friends and supporters. She is scheduled to surrender to authorities Jan. 18. Under her plea agreement, she can serve her sentence in Minnesota, so she can be close to her family.
Her supporters were downcast about the resolution of the case. "I can't believe all of these reporters are here just to witness someone's misery," said Hadassa Gilbert, who spent months organizing support for Olson in Los Angeles.
Slashdot Mirror
first post homiez from nexabit gigabit router gang.
props to my boys from lucent
I gots ta fp, baby. Nexabit 64000 where are you?
The fiscal party was lovely while it lasted: fat revenue surpluses for the state, rebate checks and tax cuts for taxpayers, and for workers, rising wages -- a byproduct of record low unemployment. For eight years, the state's biggest problem was how much extra money to hand out and to whom. Now comes the hangover. The 2002-03 budget, just four months old, has a hole that may be between $600 million and $1 billion deep. The state has taken in $152 million less than projected since July, and revenues are expected to fall short by an additional $50 million in November. The problem is not Minnesota's alone. About 44 states now project budget shortfalls. Of those, 28 either have ordered emergency budget cuts, such as spending and hiring freezes, or are crafting such measures. Special legislative sessions have been called by the governors of Iowa, Nebraska, Connecticut, Alabama, Arizona, Florida and Hawaii. Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura hasn't ordered any emergency budget actions, nor is he said to be considering a special session. And that, former Gov. Arne Carlson said, may be a mistake. "I'm surprised we haven't taken even those elementary budget measures," said Carlson, a veteran of the last recession that hit the state, in 1991, just as he was taking office. "I would do it right now. They've already lost nearly six months -- one-fourth of the budget cycle. The longer you wait, the worse it will be. The governor has got to show some leadership. This is where you start to earn your pay." Others not waiting "Most states are doing this on their own -- they're not waiting for their legislatures to go into session," said Robin Prunty, a director in the public finance department of Standard and Poor's who has researched financial trends in the 50 states. Prunty said that Minnesota, with $1 billion in budget reserves, is in a relatively strong fiscal position compared with other states. However, Minnesota can't rely on its reserves alone. "If you spend down your reserves to solve what might be ongoing budget problems, the implication is you're just sending the bill to the next governor and Legislature," Carlson said. . "And it sends a signal of instability to bond houses." Action taken in some states has been dramatic, even among those with sizable budget reserves. Georgia's governor has asked agencies to trim 2002 budgets by 2.5 percent and 2003 budgets by 5 percent, despite the state's $1.8 billion reserve. Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia have delayed or canceled capital projects. California, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina and Virginia all have instituted hiring freezes or other budgetary restrictions, according to a budget report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. To deal with a $600 million shortfall, Ohio's governor has ordered across-the-board cutbacks and said the state may have to close at least one prison. Iowa's governor has proposed a 4.3 percent across-the-board cut. Minnesota Finance Commissioner Pam Wheelock said the administration is considering a range of options, but hasn't directed agencies to take any action. She said that, "at some point," Ventura may want to order agencies to limit purchases and freeze hiring. The problem, she said, is that the bulk of the state's expenditures -- such as K-12 expenses -- are mandated by law and cannot be altered at the discretion of the governor alone. Measures that are within Ventura's discretion -- hiring freezes, agency spending freezes, travel restrictions -- wouldn't be enough to solve the state's projected shortfall, Wheelock said, although they continue to be evaluated. "The easy solutions are gone," she said. "We need permanent adjustments to the budget, and that requires legislative action." Ventura spokesman John Wodele said discussions on emergency budget measures are "very, very preliminary. It would be prudent on the part of [department] managers to look at what could be trimmed, but we have not gone into any detail yet." State Planning Director Dean Barkley said Minnesota is better prepared than other states. "We don't think we need to do [budget cuts] yet. We're trying to be thoughtful rather than just react," he said. Pressures mounting The fiscal pressures are real and mounting almost by the day. The October revenue report showed a $53 million drop in tax revenues below what had been forecast. Most troubling, State Economist Tom Stinson said, is that income tax revenues had dropped in October. That, coupled with a national unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, he said, paints a picture that is "absolutely depressing." State unemployment figures won't be out until midweek, he said, but Minnesota has lost 19,000 jobs since May -- 8,000 of those in August alone. He said he wouldn't be surprised if the figure for September were even higher. If such trends continue, "we're facing a lot more serious change to the forecast and a deeper recession than most people were thinking even at the first of October," Stinson said. Art Rolnick, research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and a member of the governor's Council of Economic Advisors, said the economy probably will remain sluggish until the nation's war against terrorism is resolved. While several fundamental indicators look good -- worker productivity was up nationally in the third quarter and the banking industry remains strong -- business investment might lag until terrorism fears are eased, he said. In the meantime, "what to do now becomes a political question more than an economic one," Rolnick said. The state's leaders must make value judgments about where to cut, how much to tap state reserve funds and even what taxes to increase to cover any shortfalls. Prunty said that as far as bond houses are concerned, "one path is not more desirable than another. We are indifferent to whether it's spending cuts or revenue enhancers. What we want is some sense that there is attention to the forecast. The longer you wait to implement fiscal restrictions, the less effective they are." Keeping bond raters happy is a major concern for states like Minnesota, which doesn't want to jeopardize the triple-A rating that allows it to borrow at the lowest rates. Those states that rely on a combination of cuts, possible tax increases and a prudent use of cash reserves will weather the economic storm best, Prunty said. Carlson said Ventura should try to put a package together soon -- but not on his own. "We made a lot of mistakes in '91," Carlson said, referring to early budget cuts he attempted that legislators resisted. Instead, he recommended bringing legislative leaders together as soon as the state's November budget forecast is in and the size of the projected shortfall known. "I would tell them, 'You approved this budget as well as I did, so we're all in this soup together.' Get a pre-agreement on spending cuts, tax increases and some judicious use of the reserve -- maybe a couple of hundred million -- and call a special session for next month." The regular legislative session doesn't start until Jan. 29 and can run into May -- too long, Carlson contends, to wait for budgetary action and too close to next year's elections. By then, nearly half of the two-year budget cycle will have elapsed, he said, necessitating even more painful cuts for the second half. "Ultimately, the responsibility rests with the governor," Carlson said. "He's got the staff, the resources and the ability to marshall public opinion. He's got to lead." earl / nexabit says hi
talking about a rev-o-lutionnnnnnnn heeeyyy ohhhh
nexabit earl says:
One of the most entertaining, not to mention musically exciting jam-groove bands that has emerged in the 90s is the MA-based yeP!. It appears that there is a certain degree of uncertainty about the bands's future, but instead of bemoaning that fact, fans can check out the band's latest, two-CD set, Live Bosco's Magic Shop (AKOPOP). The album contains a diverse mix of live cuts that capture the spontaneity of the band's live show. You can hear song teases such as "I Love Rock And Roll," "Llama," "Alabama Song" and other snippets when you least expect it. Sure, there are a few bizarre moments on the disc, but they perfectly capture the band's zany, off-kilter humor. Songs like the ten-minute Lisa Needs A Dog and the superb Son Rise show yeP!'s class, while the seventeen-minute Chaos and the twenty-one minute extravaganza Bosco show its incredible musical vision and immense potential. This is fun and original stuff that is not the least bit commercial. Highly recommended, especially if you like Phish!
seventh post homiez. props to the unemployed nexabit gang!
you really can call me earl too.
After publicly renouncing her guilty plea minutes after entering it in court last week, Sara Jane Olson restated the plea Tuesday to the satisfaction of the judge who had reprimanded her for the disavowal.
During a packed 45-minute hearing, Olson appeared shaken and needed a 10-minute meeting with her lawyers before she could answer Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler. But she still momentarily flashed her characteristic vehemence.
"Your honor, I want to make it clear I did not make those bombs, possess those bombs or place those bombs," said Olson, of St. Paul. "Under the concept of aiding and abetting, I plead guilty."
"You are indeed guilty?" Fidler asked.
"Yes."
Thus, for the second time in less than a week, Olson pleaded guilty to committing terrorist acts in 1975, a crime that could send her to prison for five years to the rest of her life.
Fidler had ordered Olson to restate her plea after she defiantly renounced it outside the courtroom last week.
In court Tuesday, Olson shook her head and her eyes briefly filled with tears as she sat facing the judge.
"You wish your plea to stand?" he asked again.
"All right," she mumbled.
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes."
Olson, a onetime radical fugitive turned St. Paul homemaker, had little to say after Fidler accepted the plea.
"I don't want to" talk, she said as she left the courthouse. "I'm done talkin'."
Prosecutors followed suit. "If they don't comment, neither do we," spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told reporters. "It's a wrap, people."
Last week, Olson pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to use pipe bombs to blow up two Los Angeles police cruisers in 1975 under a plea agreement in which prosecutors agreed to drop three other charges.
Minutes later, she stood before cameras and microphones and declared, "I pleaded to something of which I'm not guilty."
In court, she signed a statement saying, "She is pleading guilty because she is in truth and in fact guilty."
Not a 'way station'
Fidler made it clear Tuesday that he was furious about her declaration of innocence, noting that he had made it clear last week that she couldn't disavow her plea outside of court.
"A guilty plea is not a way station on the way to a press conference to declare your innocence," Fidler said. To ensure the integrity of the criminal justice system, "she must make a choice," he said. "She cannot have it both ways."
Tony Serra, one of Olson's lawyers, said that her "choice of words was inartful and imprecise." He said she should have said only what she said Tuesday, "that she did not, make, plant or physically possess those bombs."
She pleaded to aiding and abetting a conspiracy to plant the bombs by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a violent radical sect best remembered for kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. Under California law, a defendant guilty of aiding and abetting a crime is considered a principal in the crime, even if there is no direct physical link to it, Fidler said.
Olson and her attorneys said she agreed to a plea bargain more than two years after being arrested near her St. Paul house because she believed she couldn't get a fair trial on charges of committing terrorism in the political climate after Sept. 11.
Fidler said he didn't buy that argument, which he said was made "without any factual support. No jurors were questioned, so there is no way of knowing what was on their minds."
But, in an interview Tuesday, Serra revived the argument to counter prosecutors' boast last week that they had an airtight case. "In this climate of opinion they had every right to be confident of winning," he said. "They milked the domestic terrorist angle since day one. Tragically, fortuitously for them, it bore fruit."
After Sept. 11, the government complex in downtown Los Angeles has been cordoned off with concrete crash barriers, metal detectors and armed guards.
The defense and prosecution wrangled over Olson's likely prison term. The two criminal counts that she pleaded guilty to carry a sentence of 10 years to life, to be served consecutively. Olson's attorneys said they think she can be paroled after serving five years and four months, "and we believe either directly or indirectly the prosecution will seek to influence the parole board," Serra said.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Latin said prosecutors don't agree with that interpretation, although he didn't say what argument he would make before the parole board. Fidler simply noted that both sides differ and that he wanted "Mrs. Olson to understand that none of this could work out the way she hopes it could work out."
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7.
Olson remains free on $1million bail, raised by friends and supporters. She is scheduled to surrender to authorities Jan. 18. Under her plea agreement, she can serve her sentence in Minnesota, so she can be close to her family.
Her supporters were downcast about the resolution of the case. "I can't believe all of these reporters are here just to witness someone's misery," said Hadassa Gilbert, who spent months organizing support for Olson in Los Angeles.