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Old 04-22-2012, 04:11 PM
Pooka Pooka is offline
Pooka
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 664
State funds shortfall solution?

About a year or so ago someone posted the question of how will the states deal with their debt problem. I said they would issue new Bonds to cover their shortfalls and worry about how to pay them off later.

I was roundly lambasted by those who pointed out that I did not know the difference between debt and bonds and blah, blah, blah. My response was that the question was: How will the states deal the debt and not how will they get out of debt.

Anyway.... The State of Oklahoma just announced it needs a few hundred million to pay its' bills, so they are going to issue new bonds. This is how one state, in which both Houses and the Governor are all Republican, chose to deal with its' debt.

So the question now is: How do states find the money to pay their bills? Oklahoma's plan was to get rid of the state income tax and replace it with taxing Vet benefits, Social Security, property currently exempt from taxes because it is owned by a person over 65 and raising real estate taxes by 800%. Oddly enough this did not go down well with Vets, people over 65 and anyone who owns a house, so that plan was scrapped.

Any suggestions? The Ledge members in OKC need all the help they can get, so please be creative.

Thanks!
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