Grand Forks Herald: OUR OPINION: A better way exists to force budget change
California has a constitutional requirement to balance its budget.
California faces an unfunded pension liability of something north of $100 billion. California’s ongoing budget problems have consumed Gov. Jerry Brown’s term, just as they terminated former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s popularity. Here’s a Reuters headline from as recently as last week: “California budget gap could be $8 billion, more than double Jerry Brown’s projections.”
Rhode Island has a constitutional requirement to balance its budget.
Rhode Island has the seventh-highest government debt per capita in America, owing more than $18,000 per person. As you read this, the Rhode Island Legislature is in special session, and lawmakers are poised to slash retirees’ cost-of-living allowances and take other dramatic reforms. That’s in part because the state’s pension fund for teachers and state employees could run out of money as early as 2019.
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