The 11 states that went all-Republican in 2010, plus Texas, account for 70 percent of public-sector layoffs. Yet those states account for only 12.5 percent of the aggregate state budget gap. The most aggressive efforts to roll back public-sector workers were in places with strong funding of pensions, like Wisconsin. And rather than cutting services simply to bring their states into solvency, many of these conservative states immediately tried to cut taxes afterward. Arizona, for example, cut health services and education, eliminated its state-funded pre-kindergarten program, and then immediately cut corporate taxes and commercial property taxes. Texas is moving to do the same things.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 04:28:40 +0000