Word: surplus
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...report released by the U.S. Treasury Department last week is even sunnier. The working paper predicts that if current spending and tax policies remain in effect for the next five years, state surpluses will reach $86.5 billion by 1989. Since such policies will probably be altered to reflect improved balance sheets, the huge surplus "would never actually be realized." Nevertheless, the Treasury report concludes, the states would have "fiscal elbow room" to cut taxes or increase spending and could "comfortably" support current levels of services without raising taxes...
While Michigan resisted the reduction, other states with healthy surpluses are under pressure to trim taxes and restore program cuts. In New Jersey, where the 1985 surplus may wind up as high as $800 million, politicians from both parties have put toxic-waste cleanup at the top of a long list of demands. New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who reports a surplus of $207 million, is designing a broad tax-reform plan that will include income tax reductions. In California, Governor George Deukmejian plans to pump money into education, highway construction and environmental projects. Says William Hamm, an analyst...
...states to scale back many popular programs. In New York, officials say the Reagan budget proposal could cost the state $170 million in Medicaid funds, $458 million in revenue sharing, $271 million in sewage-system construction grants and $67 million for child-nutrition programs. That would turn a modest surplus into a deficit of about three-quarters of a billion dollars. The shortfalls would also be severe in California, where federal dollars amount to 31% of the $43.5 billion budget...
...states argue that their fiscal well-being is fragile. Their aggregate surplus is less than half the prerecession total of $11.2 billion in 1979. Some 40% of the current black ink is concentrated in just five states: California, New Jersey, Minnesota, Texas and Wisconsin. Moreover, financial experts consider a healthy surplus to be 5% of total state spending; this year's surpluses average between 3% and 4%. The reserves are highly sensitive to economic fluctuations. Explains James Burton, executive secretary of California's commission on state finances: "A small dip in the national economy can wipe...
Posing as clerks at a bogus Oceanside, Calif., store called Golden State Surplus, authorities bought pilfered flak jackets, combat knives, .45-cal. magazines and sleeping bags from Camp Pendleton Marines for 10% to 20% of their cost. "Marines were quite literally breaking down the door trying to sell us gear," said FBI Agent John Kelso. Among the purloined goods were 9,400 blank military ID cards, which could have been used for access to mili tary bases. Most of the gear was never reported missing. Some inventories even showed an over stock, indicating that higher-ups may at least have...