Gov Bobby Jindal rejects stimulus dollars for Louisiana
In an interview with David Gregory on Meet the Press, Governor Bobby Jindal states he is not accepting his entire cut of the stimulus package in order to keep Louisiana competitive. Also, he does not philosophically agree with the stimulus package. He advocates for more tax cuts and “targeted temporary spending”.
Jindal emphasizes that the best way to grow the economy is through tax cuts.
“I think we just have a fundamental disagreement here. I don’t think the best way to do that is for the government to tax and borrow more money. I think the best thing they could’ve done, for example, was to cut taxes on things like capital gains, the lower tax brackets, to get the private sector spending again.”
He questions how certain spending project in the bill will even stimulate the economy.
“What would be more helpful from Washington is less unnecessary spending. How does $300 million for federal cars, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, how is spending like that going to help our economy? How’s that stimulus?”
Governor Jindal rejected stimulus dollars for unemployment insurance because it would result in raising taxes on businesses.
“The $100 million we turned down was temporary federal dollars that would require us to change our unemployment laws. That would’ve actually raised taxes on Louisiana businesses. We as a state would’ve been responsible for paying for those benefits after the federal money disappeared.”
California’s lack of transparency in handling its Budget Crisis
There were many voiced concerns over lack the lack of transparency in the passing of the California budget agreement according to a LA Times article and KPBS radio interview. During the making of the plan to ameliorate California’s budget crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and five legislative leaders effectively locked out input from other lawmakers and the public.
Democrat state senator Darrell Steinberg said,
“No one likes the secrecy of the big five…it’s not the way the process should happen…”
Republican state senator Roy Ashburn said,
“It’s an abuse of power to have it done in secret, and deliberately so, is unacceptable.”
Emily Rusch, a public transportation advocate at the California Public Interest Research Group said,
“it was very hard to engage in the budget process…”
You can check out information about the California State Budget on Sunshine Review.
Daley’s partial transparency
Chicago’s Mayor Daley refused to make the spending project lists for the stimulus Bill transparent.
“Yes, we do, we have our list, we’ve been talking to people. We did not put that out publicly because once you start putting it out publicly, you know, the newspapers, the media is going to be ripping it apart,” Daley said.
Apparently, Daley does not understand that the role of the media is to hold public officials accountable.
On Feb. 11 Daley went to Washington and offered a partial list of the spending projects, which includes 200 schools, 150 miles of main streets, 200 miles of street lights and 75 miles of sewer and water mains.
It is pretty transparent from the 2009 budget that Daley is using red light cameras, parking tickets and parking taxes to ameliorate the budget crisis. The city should also be completely, not partially transparent to tax payers on the spending list for the massive stimulus package.