Word: surplus
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...Besides the taxpayers' bill for the payoff on the $10 billion, which will likely come out of the state's budget surplus, there will be a ratepayer's increase too, as an emergency 9 percent rate hike allowed utilities will become permanent. But for residential customers, there's a conservation component - rates would go up only if they used 30 percent more power than "baseline" levels set by a formula that takes into account regional differences in climate and energy...
...Because next week, Bush's stay of execution - the order to western states to funnel their surplus electricity to California lightbulbs - runs out, and you can bet the folks in Oregon, Washington and Idaho won't be doing it voluntarily. The trick for Davis, in his haste to cut stopgap deals, will be to avoid paying prices that are an expensive embarrassment five years down the road...
...David Broder, in his Washington Post column on Wednesday, and Harvard economist Richard Freeman and think-tanker Eileen Appelbaum in the New York Times on Thursday, all raise the admittedly intriguing idea of the "prosperity dividend." The gist: Wait until the surplus is a surplus before you send it back. At the end of the fiscal year, if there's money left over in the federal budget, simply cut every taxpayer in America a check...
...expect from Paul O'Neill. But expecting congressional Democrats and Republicans to scrimp and save every year in order to send Americans an annual surplus dividend for which they'd share the credit? That's a very long shot indeed...
...into a budget, which they will," Bush assured reporters after a White House meeting with Hill Republicans. But as yet, the administration is still working on the details. That's because O'Neill not only wants to head off what he can of the expected Democratic resistance - the booming surplus and sagging economy has raised their counteroffer up to $800 billion, but they're still fighting for income cutoffs for the wealthy and more targeted cuts for the poor - but he's also looking for ways to speed the cut's impact on the economy, like a retroactive decrease...