Economy

JJ Husker said:
They need a TABOR (taxpayer bill of rights) law like Colorado has. When they take in more revenue than needed/allowed, it gets refunded directly to the people. I think each taxpayer is getting $400 back this year.
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I live in California and my kids are now out of public school, but I fully support taking this surplus and putting it back into education, which has suffered mightily in a decade of budget cutting. 

Remember, some of the surplus is due to pandemic shutdowns that lowered state/local government expenses more than revenues, at the same time taxpayers were getting federal relief payments. Coming out of the pandemic, there's a new s#!tshow to fund. 

I would suggest that the California GOP, which launched a recall of Governor Gavin Newsom (only a year before he could be directly voted out) find a way to refund the $200,000,000 it cost state taxpayers to fund their publicity stunt. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
I live in California and my kids are now out of public school, but I fully support taking this surplus and putting it back into education, which has suffered mightily in a decade of budget cutting. 

Remember, some of the surplus is due to pandemic shutdowns that lowered state/local government expenses more than revenues, at the same time taxpayers were getting federal relief payments. Coming out of the pandemic, there's a new s#!tshow to fund. 

I would suggest that the California GOP, which launched a recall of Governor Gavin Newsom (only a year before he could be directly voted out) find a way to refund the $200,000,000 it cost state taxpayers to fund their publicity stunt. 
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I don’t disagree that there is probably a better use for the surplus rather than a refund. But the problem is, before TABOR, they would absorb those funds into whatever and it typically wasn’t going to the most sensible places. Education was underfunded before. However, since TABOR, it does seem like school bond issues passing and school funding overall has improved. Maybe when governments are made to be more accountable and better stewards there is less wasteful spending and better funding for needed things?

 
JJ Husker said:
I don’t disagree that there is probably a better use for the surplus rather than a refund. But the problem is, before TABOR, they would absorb those funds into whatever and it typically wasn’t going to the most sensible places. Education was underfunded before. However, since TABOR, it does seem like school bond issues passing and school funding overall has improved. Maybe when governments are made to be more accountable and better stewards there is less wasteful spending and better funding for needed things?
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Well  you gotta pay attention, too. Our town passed a bond issue to secure funding for STEM education at our schools, and a few years later some parents said "hey, what happened to that?" They looked into it and found a large amount of that money went to two counselors at one high school, and an IT manager who should have been part of the general budget. Also, the district administrators were supposed to have organized an oversight committee for this very reason, and kinda just, you know.....didn't. They did not count on how many of these PTO Moms were also skilled accountants, lawyers and high level financial advisors. We also got the Superintendent fired.

So much is done under our noses because people don't have time to pay attention, and/or hate confrontation. Gotta admit bringing a well informed and highly motivated crowd to the typically sleepy school board meeting was pretty fun.  

 
Born N Bled Red said:
INFLATION???

https://www.rfdtv.com/story/46480925/jbs-made-dollar1-billion-in-profits-in-the-first-quarter?fbclid=IwAR03ZWBPSm58yARO4EYGlTkS9ZJpikNOdGL2G5hIpPhs6-0MJnZRtyZg1yY

I THINK NOT. 

Corporate greed passed off as inflation. You betcha. 


Billion-dollar beef! 



 



JBS, the world's largest meat processing company, posted $1 billion in profit for the first quarter. That is up 150 percent from a year ago.
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That is not the only reason for inflation. 

 
JJ Husker said:
I don’t disagree that there is probably a better use for the surplus rather than a refund. But the problem is, before TABOR, they would absorb those funds into whatever and it typically wasn’t going to the most sensible places. Education was underfunded before. However, since TABOR, it does seem like school bond issues passing and school funding overall has improved. Maybe when governments are made to be more accountable and better stewards there is less wasteful spending and better funding for needed things?
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I agree with your sentiments by bipartisanship is pretty much flatlining at this point so this will never work on a federal scale since there's such a wide gap between our two parties. One wastes huge sums of tax dollars on ridiculous crap like @Guy Chamberlin pointed out and states they want to drown the gubmint in a bathtub. The other one believes in government spending but has no rational, responsible counterbalance to incentivize them to take measures like you're talking about to responsibly steward spending.

Maybe Dems could do it anyway on their own since the California GOP is such a flaming train wreck they have ceded all power. I doubt it though. One of the pitfalls of unchallenged one party rule. 

Which brings up the issue of gerrymandering states so badly they're not competitive. 

Which brings up the issue of the various flaws and stupidities of our archaic electoral system that lead to bad, non-functional 

Which brings up the same issues with our two party system.

:steam      :bang       :facepalm:

 
Danny Bateman said:
I agree with your sentiments by bipartisanship is pretty much flatlining at this point so this will never work on a federal scale since there's such a wide gap between our two parties. One wastes huge sums of tax dollars on ridiculous crap like @Guy Chamberlin pointed out and states they want to drown the gubmint in a bathtub. The other one believes in government spending but has no rational, responsible counterbalance to incentivize them to take measures like you're talking about to responsibly steward spending.

Maybe Dems could do it anyway on their own since the California GOP is such a flaming train wreck they have ceded all power. I doubt it though. One of the pitfalls of unchallenged one party rule. 

Which brings up the issue of gerrymandering states so badly they're not competitive. 

Which brings up the issue of the various flaws and stupidities of our archaic electoral system that lead to bad, non-functional 

Which brings up the same issues with our two party system.

:steam      :bang       :facepalm:
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Well I wasn’t proposing something like this on a federal scale because, you are right, it would never work. Heck it barely works at the state level. Almost every ballot since we passed TABOR has had amendments to undue it. At times it has been a bit too restrictive but I really think it has helped keep some of the wasteful spending in check. Give somebody an open check book and they’re gonna use it to the max. They now have ask the taxpayers to approve any tax increases and they can’t keep the extra revenue. They have figured out a way to bypass it to some degree though. Fees. 

 
Born N Bled Red said:
INFLATION???

https://www.rfdtv.com/story/46480925/jbs-made-dollar1-billion-in-profits-in-the-first-quarter?fbclid=IwAR03ZWBPSm58yARO4EYGlTkS9ZJpikNOdGL2G5hIpPhs6-0MJnZRtyZg1yY

I THINK NOT. 

Corporate greed passed off as inflation. You betcha. 


Billion-dollar beef! 



 



JBS, the world's largest meat processing company, posted $1 billion in profit for the first quarter. That is up 150 percent from a year ago.
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If it was all because of corporate greed and all these companies are making such huge profits from ripping people off, why did this happen?


 
BigRedBuster said:
If it was all because of corporate greed and all these companies are making such huge profits from ripping people off, why did this happen?
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The companies that decide inflation are global corporate conglomerates that are able to enforce their greed across the globe. 

These companies are harvesting any increase in wealth provided by wage increases and stimulus during the pandemic, leaving less wealth for people to purchase non- necessity items, causing the future earnings for those companies to look like they might decline. People having more money does not lead to inflation. Raising prices to harvest that money does. (Shortages come into play, particularly when it comes to gas, as well.) 

 
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