City Manager's Blog

Steve Pinkerton has been the City Manager of Manteca since June 16, 2008. He served as Redevelopment Director for the City of Stockton, California from 1994 to 2008. He has also worked for the cities of Long Beach and Redondo Beach. Born in Wisconsin, Mr. Pinkerton has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and and a Master's Degree in Economics from the University of Southern California, and Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Geography from the University of Missouri.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

California, Once again on the leading edge...

Today's Sac Bee has the following article which notes how California is ahead of the pack when it comes to fiscal insolvency!

Here it is:

November 11, 2009
California crisis cited as warning for other states

California's state budget crisis is so severe that the Pew Center on the States, a Washington-based policy think tank, is using it as an example of conditions that imperil other states.
Nine other states, the Pew report says, are facing "some of the same pressures that have pushed California toward economic disaster," adding that they also could see furloughs of public employees, severe cuts in education and reductions in the social welfare safety net.
"A challenging mix of economic, political and money-management factors have pushed California to the brink of insolvency. But while California often takes the spotlight, other states are facing hardships just as daunting," Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said in a statement accompanying the report. "Decisions these states make as they try to navigate the recession will play a role in how quickly the entire nation recovers."

The report was issued just two days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger acknowledged that the state's current budget, enacted last July, is as much as $7 billion in the red already. He is expected to propose ways to close that gap and deal with the projected deficit in the 2010-11 budget no later than Jan. 10.

The other nine states threatened with California-style fiscal crisis, the Pew report said, are Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. With California, they represent one-third of the nation's population and economic output.

The report identifies California's fiscal problems as loss of revenue, the relative size of its budget gap, high home mortgage foreclosure rates, legal obstacles to balancing the budget, and "poor money management practices."

Although the nine other states have some similar problems, several of them "already have responded aggressively to their budget crisis, although it is too soon to tell whether their actions will put them on solid fiscal footing."

The full report, titled "Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril," actually looks at the finances of all 50 states but concentrates on California and the nine states deemed to be in most fiscal peril.

The report is available here.

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