------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 7, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
A FREIGHT TRAIN HEADING OUR WAY: STATE BUDGET AXES TO FALL AFTER ELECTIONS By Deirdre Griswold The budget crisis in Maine is so severe that tax forms may not get printed and delivered in time for next year's filing. State legislators can't agree on what the tax laws should say in time for the printer's deadline. The governor of Massachusetts wants to cut an additional $300 million from the state budget, which will eat into schools and Medicaid. Virginia needs to borrow $1 billion to repair its crumbling schools and parks. Minnesota's budget deficit is now over $3 billion. The state is contemplating painful cuts in education, health and human services. In Tulsa, Okla., once a center of fabulous oil wealth, 500 low-income mental patients may lose their health care because of the state budget crisis. School districts across Texas are in crisis and face either raising taxes or cutting budgets. Reports a special committee on revenue and school funding: "Texas is perilously close to a collapse of its public school system." (Long View News-Journal) Billionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg flies two state legislators to his fancy Bermuda estate for a private discussion on the state's budget crisis. On his return he announces a city hiring freeze and an additional 2.5 percent cut in city agencies' budgets on top of a 7.5 percent cut earlier. It's the same all over this country. Some 37 states are reporting severe budget crises as tax revenues dip with the economic recession. There is no question that the axe will fall on many thousands of workers as soon as the elections are over and cuts in services will deepen. For years, the federal government has pushed the burden of social programs onto the states so it could devote itself with greater single-mindedness to the task of building the most ominous and destructive armed force the world has ever known. At the same time, the rich set up think tanks and committees of legal experts to "guide" the Congress through passing tax cuts that save them billions of dollars at the people's expense. Now the other shoe is dropping: a push for higher sales taxes. No one likes income taxes, but they are supposed to be structured "progressively"--in theory, at any rate, the rich are supposed to pay at a higher rate than those who can barely live on their meager earnings. Now that many states have eliminated income taxes altogether, and taxes on stock market earnings as well as wages are down, the right wingers have a new cause: raise sales taxes on everything from gasoline to housewares. Sales taxes always hit the poor the hardest. The rich have gimmicks to avoid them, like getting themselves incorporated. This writer knows someone who once worked in the office of the Rockefeller family foundation. These billionaires didn't even pay taxes on their toilet paper. They bought it tax-free through the foundation. But there's only so much blood you can get from a stone. Workers can't pay much more than they are doing already. So the other option the capitalist politicians provide is budget cuts. Cut schools, hospitals, parks, libraries and all the other necessary services. Cuts are just another word for layoffs. When factories started closing, service jobs were supposed to be the new growth industry. Now these are the very jobs that are threatened, along with the services they provide. Layoffs and cutbacks on top of recession and war--that's what the rulers of the richest, most powerful country in the world are offering the people. They're asking for a social explosion--and they'll get it. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
