Thursday, January 29, 2009

Cue The Chickens. Its Roosting Time in California....

Dunno if this penetrated through the howling din of other financial disaster news, but it turns out the State of California is running out of cash. Yes, the whole state.

There's a $40 billion dollar budget gap, which has prompted the State to consider not paying all the people its promised to give money to.

Its not inconceivable that California could default on its state bonds, but for now they've decided to ask state employees to take 2 days off a month without pay, and put off some payments. So if your business does IT consulting for the State, well they may not pay you next month. You may have to wait until the next month, or the month after that.

As part of their report on this story, the Marketplace radio show interviewed a bunch of people. One of them was a young woman named Kia Koderup-Lane, a freshman with a double major in poli-sci and 'liberal studies.' (Pause to let the giggles die down.)

She's supremely pissed off, as her state student aid check is expected to be delayed, and says that without the check, she may have to drop out. Seems like from the interview she's already working one job. (Good for her, seriously)

Kia, consider this a fast education in 'liberal studies.' A government cannot lay out $40 billion more than it takes in, no matter how worthy the causes might be.



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