Liberal, Tax, Government, Incompetence, Financial, Narrative, Oops, Debt

Connecticut’s state budget woes are compounding with collections from the state income tax collapsing, despite two high-end tax hikes in the past six years.

  It means the current budget year, which ends in just two months, is now seriously in the red and next year’s deficit has ballooned to $2.2 billion.

  It’s happening because the state of Connecticut depends too much on its wealthy residents, and wealthy residents are leaving, and the ones that are staying are making less, or are not taking their profits from the stock market until they see what happens in Washington.

Democrat, Scandal, Corruption, Convict

Defiant Bay State lawmakers saw no need to change their Beacon Hill ways yesterday, despite the stunning news that their erstwhile leader, disgraced ex-House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, had been found guilty of extortion, fraud and corruption — the third speaker in a row to be convicted on federal charges.

Government, Incompetence

Lawmakers voted last year to allow the seizure of cards after two to three years as a way to raise about $80 million and help balance the state's budget.

Liberal, Incompetence, Financial

Rhode Island is one of the bluest states in the country, and one where public sector unions have long worked with sympathetic politicians to create a true blue system of well paid public employees retiring comfortably on generous pensions with cost of living raises automatically thrown in. The only problem is that the state could never afford the beautiful utopia it was crafting, and so politicians and union leaders chose the path of systemic deceit. Taxpayers weren’t told what the bill for the system would be; public service workers weren’t told that the pension guarantees they’d been sold were worthless because taxpayers would not and could not foot the bill.

Liberal, Crime, Government, Character, Degeneracy, Financial, Waste

They say crime doesn't pay, but that might not be entirely true in the District of Columbia as lawmakers look for ways to discourage people from becoming repeat offenders. The D.C. Council unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that includes a proposal to pay residents a stipend not to commit crimes.... The bill doesn't specify the value of the stipends, but participants in the California program receive up to $9,000 per year.

Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Financial

Detroit’s funeral directors received this unusual text message last month. “FYI, city of Detroit can’t process death certificates because they have no paper and don’t have money to buy any.” The message, from a fellow funeral director, was mostly true: The city did stop issuing certified copies of birth and death certificates on July 23, days after the July 18 bankruptcy filing. That day, a nervous paper vendor demanded cash — and the city wanted to do business as usual, on credit.

Democrat, Hypocrisy, Liberal, Crime, Government, Greed, Justice, Corruption

Albany: Almost a quarter of the state Senate's Democratic conference was in the FBI's cross hairs last year, according to a court filing unsealed Wednesday. Last summer, federal investigators asked state Sen. Shirley Huntley to invite six Democratic colleagues to her Queens home and record their conversations... Prosecutors have already indicted two of the taped senators, John Sampson of Brooklyn and Malcolm Smith of Queens, but the memo listed four more colleagues: Eric Adams and Velmanette Montgomery of Brooklyn, Jose Peralta of Queens and Ruth Hassell-Thompson of Mount Vernon. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the situation "complicated, but basically all bad." "I'm just happy that all of this is coming to light, and we're working out the bad apples," said Sen. Tony Avella, D-Queens. "Let everybody wear a wire. It really is the tip of the iceberg — whether it's taking a bribe or pushing a bill for a campaign contribution, it's all unethical."

Democrat, Hypocrisy, Crime, Character, Threats, Greed, Corruption

Just one year after laying off a third of his city’s police force and disbanding street crime and drug units, Tony Mack, the mayor of Trenton has been arrested for his role in extorting over $100,000 from 'developers' of a public parking garage... "Time and again, we have seen public officials in New Jersey who are all too willing to sell their power and betray the public’s trust," U.S. Attorney Fishman said.

Democrat, Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Oops, Jobs

Among the 50 states, California in the West and Rhode Island in the East tied in January for the highest jobless rate in the nation, 9.8%, while North Dakota was the lowest at 3.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And unsurprisingly, Texas led the nation in payroll job growth, just as it did in January of last year.

Government, Incompetence, Funny, Waste

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) – Trenton’s health department could shut down some city buildings if a toilet paper shortage isn’t resolved soon.

“It could be an inconvenience for anybody, young, old, male, female,” said Maryann Wooten of Hamilton Township. The toilet paper and paper towel supply for at least eleven buildings, including city hall, are dangerously low. “We have one box with about fifteen rolls of toilet paper and that’s it,” said Harold Hall, Acting Public Works Director.

Government, Bigbrother

Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit.

Crime, Violence, Abortion

With a few days left in the year, the city's homicide tally stood at 324 Wednesday, including the eight victims allegedly killed in previous years by West Philly abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Last year, 306 people were killed, and the year before, 302.