John Lynch could only win re-election with the help of Republicans and independents and so he did. So are they all liberals in denial, or just a bunch of suckers? Someone fell for the lies about the budget. They believed the liberals and their RINO agitators who sold them on a $70 million dollar surplus while the state was still trying to rob the JUA and sell off property. Never occurred to ask why the state needed to spend taxpayer money on lawsuits and litigation to steal money from the JUA when they claimed to have a "surplus?"
I asked that question often.
But when votes showed up in adequate numbers to take every branch of government with a super majority of Republicans, they still left the little governor that could. Suckers.
We are suckers because on November third, as if by magic, the surplus smoke screen cleared to reveal the wreckage of years of democrat majority rule. Now that the election is over we have a budget crisis again.
Cathy Silber of the very partisan (so-called non-partisan) GSFTC began early by trying to sell the solution for our resurrected funding woes on a more modern revenue structure. (Sales and income taxes if you didn’t know.) Every major democrat began talking about the challenges of dealing with a Republican majority and our budget situation–and how it might affect services. And now John Lynch admits we have a huge problem.
Have? We always had this problem! And we have it because John Lynch let the democrat majority spend and spend, then used gimmicks and one time money to hide it, and now it is time to pay.
When will we learn?
From this morning’s union leader…
Lynch said he’s ordered all agency heads to find a way to cut 5 percent from their existing budgets. The move is his way of addressing what could be a revenue shortfall of more than $600 million with no changes in spending or taxes
Emphasis mine.
And doesn’t that number sound familiar? A revenue shortfall of 600 million with no change in spending or taxed. Not to put to fine a point on it, but while 5% is a nice gesture it lacks parity with the fiscal reality of the lives of those who must pay for this government.
The line watched most closely is spending of money raised by state taxes over the next two years. That total soars to $3.7 billion, compared to $2.9 billion now, an increase of 31 percent. Part of the increase is the fact that one-time dollars, most notably federal stimulus funds, will not be available in 2012 and 2013.
For those a bit slow on the uptake, let’s call them Lynch voters for now, Mr. Lynch used one time money to hide excessive liberal spending (during a four year period when inflation was basically flat) we need to increase revenues to cover all that fiscal gymnastics.
So while people were trying to hang onto their homes and cutting corners, the democrats were spending their declining income like there was no tomorrow. Turns out for most of the elected democrats there was no tomorrow,all except for governor Lynch. He’s still there, thanks to whoever fell for all the lies.
Of course the deficit problem would still exist without him, so perhaps it is better that he can not escape responsibility for it.
We do have a veto proof majority–though that could prove to be less of an advantage on issues like fixing education funding and dealing with spending issues that might affect local property taxes. But on the whole, there is a more important lesson to be learned…
Lynch Lied. The democrats lied. The Republican’s for Lynch lied. The media that regurgitated the surplus meme failed to do their jobs. This has to be fixed, and it might hurt, but if we don’t do it now, your future will be coming up taxes, and taxes and more taxes.
As we ponder the options we may find another way to describe John Lunch’s unprecedented fourth term as governor. I’m open to suggestions.
