Costly ballot measures pose risk to state budgets

Costly ballot measures pose risk to state budgets - Yahoo! News document.body.className = ‘js-enabled‘; Skip to navigation » Skip to content » U.S. U.S. Video Costly ballot measures pose risk to state budgets Buzz Up IM del.icio.us Yahoo! Bookmarks By DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner, Ap Business Writer – 6 mins ago AP – Heidi Van Huysen is shown in Confluence Park along the South Platte River in Denver on Wednesday, Oct. …

The measures include plans for a high-speed rail line in California, highway construction in Colorado and a referendum on eliminating the state income tax in Massachusetts.

"Some of these could be disastrous if they happen ... It could throw government into a tizzy, because there‘s not a plan for what to do next," said Donald Boyd, a senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Oregon‘s situation is typical of the changing conditions: The state‘s ballot includes proposals that could cost as much as $2.9 billion. But now the state is preparing for a $500 million shortfall.

In Montana, which is asking voters‘ permission to invest state money in the stock market, voter information pamphlets say that "aggregate stock values are expected to appreciate, while bond values do not."

Other proposals are worrisome because they involve cutting taxes:

• In North Dakota, voters will consider a proposal to cut personal income taxes in half and reduce corporate income taxes by 15 percent.

That many ballot initiatives appear as constitutional amendments further complicates the picture.

Not all ballot measures will cost states money. Voters in nine states will decide measures that would raise revenue. Six do so by creating new lotteries or casinos, or by taxing existing ones. One eliminates a corporate tax credit, and two raise sales taxes.

But Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax advocacy group, said officials who complain about ballot initiatives forget that "they work for the taxpayers and not the other way around."

"It‘s the people drawing a line in the sand and saying ... we don‘t want you to do everything you want to do," he said.

Elsewhere, there are concerns about unfunded spending mandates. Four state ballots will feature a total of seven spending proposals that have no funding mechanisms, Bowser said.

Some states could be required to divert money to new projects by taking it away from existing programs.

Colorado voters may decide to direct $89 million to highway construction and maintenance by reducing the money given to water projects and energy subsidies for low-income residents, among other programs.

Heidi Van Huysen, a former Department of Natural Resources official who is leading the charge against the proposal, said the move could cut off funding for smaller programs aimed at managing invasive species like zebra mussels and offsetting the effects of mining and drilling.

A Montana measure would direct $22 million of existing tax revenue to new children‘s health insurance programs. Opponents warn that it would snatch the money from schools and other existing programs.

When confronted with cost cutting, state officials typically begin with across-the-board reductions, hiring freezes and layoffs, said Boyd, of the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

But, he said, those measures are only effective "around the margins," and that states with radically changed budget pictures must cut core services as well.

States facing tough ballot measures can also seek help from courts, which sometimes overturn measures as unconstitutional, or rely on increased borrowing. In Utah, lawmakers are issuing $45 million in bonds for transportation projects that the state had planned to pay for in cash.

In the last decade, states have doubled the portion of their spending backed by debt, according to Sujit Canagaretna, senior fiscal analyst with the Council of State Governments. That could cause problems if the economy remains weak and payments begin coming due, he said.

Boyd said voters who approve extreme measures like the Massachusetts tax cut could experience buyer‘s remorse once they realize how deep the cuts to social programs will be.

"The same voters who approve it might learn they had a bigger taste for government services than they realized," he said. Recommend Buzz Up IM del.icio.us Yahoo! Bookmarks (function() { /** * YUI function to get all elements by class name * getElementsByClass */ function getElementsByClass(className, tag, root) { tag = tag || ‘*‘; root = (typeof root == ‘string‘) ? document.getElementById(root) : root || document; var nodes = [], elements = root.getElementsByTagName(tag), re = new RegExp(‘(?:^|s+)‘ + className + ‘(?:s+|$)‘); for (var i = 0, len = elements.length; i < len; ++i) { if ( re.test(elements[i].className) ) { nodes[nodes.length] = elements[i]; } } return nodes; } /** * This code displays the expand button as the page loads. This prevents any lag in displaying * the button if the page takes a long time to load. If the user clicks the button before the page * loads then we just show the full story without animation. Thus, preventing the full implementation * from loading. */ var story = document.getElementById(‘yn-story‘); var related = document.getElementById(‘yn-story-related-media‘); if ( (story && story.className.indexOf(‘read-more-toggle‘) != -1) && window.location.hash!=‘#full‘ ) { var buttonHeight = 18; var defaultHeight = 406; var heightLimit = 200; var host = document.location.host; var path = document.location.pathname; var bd = getElementsByClass(‘bd‘,‘div‘,story)[0]; // Figure out min height for story container based on the heights of the related media and primary media containers if (related) { // do height calculations if related height is larger than default minHeight if (related.offsetHeight > defaultHeight) { // if primary exists then use that height, otherwise use related var obj = getElementsByClass(‘primary-media‘,‘div‘,related)[0]; if (!obj) obj = related; // set height from primary or related container minHeight = parseInt(obj.offsetHeight, 10); // if the minheight is smaller than default, then set it to default if ( (minHeight < defaultHeight) && !document.getElementById(‘yn-story-main-media‘) && !document.getElementById(‘yn-story-minor-media‘) ) { minHeight = defaultHeight; } } else { minHeight = defaultHeight; } } else { minHeight = defaultHeight; } // add height of buttons to min height minHeight += buttonHeight; // make sure there is enough story to hide if ((bd.offsetHeight - minHeight) > heightLimit) { // set overflow and height bd.style.height = minHeight + "px"; bd.className += " overflow"; story.className += " read-closed"; // add read more expand button var div = document.createElement(‘div‘); div.className = ‘read-more read-more-expand‘; div.innerHTML = ‘Read Full Article‘; // we have to handle the case where a user might click the button before our YUI script loads // if so, remove the height and overflow setting then hide the button, also add #full hash to url so // if script eventually is loaded it doesnt recreate the buttons and collapse the story div.onclick = function(ev) { var e = ev || window.event; // show full story bd.style.height = ‘auto‘; bd.className = bd.className.replace(‘overflow‘,‘‘); story.className = story.className.replace(‘read-closed‘,‘‘); // hide the toggle button div.className += ‘ hide‘; // add #full hash to url to prevent YUI script from loading window.location.hash = ‘#full‘; // disable link follow if (e.preventDefault) { e.preventDefault(); } else { e.returnValue = false; } } // add div to document bd.appendChild(div); } } })(); More... Video: Anchorwoman attack appears random Video: Iraqi puppy has a new home in Minnesota Video: Sex Offenders Told Not To Participate In Halloween Most Viewed - U.S. Court upholds Bianca Jagger‘s Manhattan eviction AP Va. mall may bring back jilted Santa after outcry AP AP Sarah Palin dragging down Republican ticket: polls AFP Miss Teen Louisiana arrested, loses crown AP All Most Viewed » Most Blogged - Top Stories With $605 million already, Obama asks only $10 more from each of us Top of the Ticket – Thu Oct 23, 3:50 am EDT Blogs About This Story (23) TIME: Swampland – Thu Oct 23, 9:20 am EDT Blogs About This Story (14) Breaking: New poll shows Russell over Murtha, 48-35 Michelle Malkin – Thu Oct 23, 11:58 am EDT Blogs About This Story (13) Elsewhere on the Web ABC News: Missing Mystery: Where are Paige, Levi? NPR: Bloomberg Wins Right To Seek Third Term McClatchy Newspapers: Health care: Both candidates' plans promise radical change Alerts Get an alert when there are new stories about: tax revenue National Conference of State Legislatures personal income taxes new children‘s health insurance voter information pamphlets Add Selected Alerts Also on Yahoo! News News by Region (Yahoo! Directory) Yahoo! News & Media Sites Daily Features All Comics » Opinions & Editorials: Diverse views on news from the right, left, and center. All Opinion » Photo Highlight

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