Federal Funding to States

The federal government provides money to the states; when it gets in a bind it reduces that funding. State budgets are created in advance of getting the federal funds and as such depend on it to make their budgets. If you think this conundrum isn’t affecting your state budget – guess what, you’re wrong. Here are a few examples of how the snowball effect is working:

In October 2011 it was reported that:

·    A Topeka, Kansas city law banning domestic violence has been repealed because with budget cuts they need to focus on felonies rather than misdemeanors. 

·      Washington State was releasing 12,000 felons without Parole Officers to supervise them in the communities.

·    Because Highland Park, Michigan couldn’t pay its bill, the Power Company repossessed 1,400 street lights.

·         Texas stopped feeding prison inmates lunches on weekends to save money.

·         Time magazine reported that Harrisburg, Pennsylvania filed for bankruptcy in October.

In November we heard:

·         The Police Chief in Smithfield, North Carolina say that budget cuts are leaving little money for gas so he’s ignoring 911 calls relating to misdemeanors, hang-ups and burglar alarms. 

·    Jefferson County, Alabama declared $4.1 billion in bankruptcy, largest municipality in US history to declare such.

·     In California after being sentenced to 30 days in jail Lindsey Lohan spent 4 hours due to overcrowding. And, Dr. Conrad Murray was sentenced to 4 years for his part in the death of Michael Jackson but it was said that he will probably spend less than 2 years because of overcrowding.

·         Rhode Island lawmakers suspend state pension increases and raise the retirement age.

·      Donorschoose.org helps teachers all over the country buy supplies for their students. (Ellen DeGeneres along with Target and others is also helping schools.)  

In December:

·         Riverside County, California said it will begin charging prison inmates a per night charge like hotels; inmates that can pay will have to shell out about $150 a night.

·       School officials in Seattle, Washington said kids weren’t going for the healthy choices in the vending machines so they’re bringing back junk food as the school is losing money and the money from the vending machines helps pay for bands and other clubs.

·       Outgoing Mississippi Governor, Haley Barbour, (known for being tough on crime) on his last few days in office, pardoned nearly 200 convicts (the most in the state in almost 30 years). The pardons included more than 24 murderers as well as rapists and kidnappers; the Attorney General said he’s going to try and block them as state law requires a 30 day notice and that didn’t happen. A judge did temporarily halt the pardons of 21 but 4 released murders (they cooked and cleaned at the Governor’s mansion and one had been denied parole last month) were gone and no one knows where they’re at. The ex-Governor is living in Florida and responded with 90% of them were no longer in custody and a majority have been released for years.

In addition to the funding dilemma, the federal government passes laws that the states are required to implement or thus forego receiving funds. One example of the feds requiring foolish state spending was its law that required them by the end of 2011 to change all street signs with small letters to signs using capital letters.

By the way, on December 15 it was reported that the US prison population fell for the first time in 4 decades. I’m pretty sure the lack of funds had something to do with sentencing and the release of inmates which affected the population numbers.