Grandma: Told Ya So . . .

Former Texas Comptroller Carole Keaton Rylander Strayhorn, way back in 2006 predicted that the Rick Perry-sponsored business tax would in no way, shape or form be enough to make up for the property tax cut that became a hallmark of the governorship.

Back then, Grandma, as she likes to be called (she even wanted to be listed as such on the 2006 general election ballot when she ran against Rick, Chris and Kinky) said this about Perry’s plan to ruin the futures of Texas schoolchildren among others:

“I absolutely knew I was telling them straight up as best as I knew. I knew it would be awhile before you would see the results.”

It took awhile because of the shell game that Perry and his cronies played with the Texas budget. That and taking billions in education funding from the Obama Administration and using it to balance the budget instead of using it to improve education in Texas.

A Perry spokesperson was quick to respond, completely dismissing Grandma’s self-congratulatory declaration.

“Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said the ‘Texas economy continues to grow steadily ahead of the nation, and the comptroller's biennial revenue estimate, as expected, is also reflective of the national recession's lingering impact on state revenue.’”

Which would make perfect sense if what Rick Perry claimed before about how well Texas has dealt with the recession with the famous words “We’re in one?”

Oh yes he did:

 

Senate Passes Aid to States (Even to Texas)

Today the Senate passed HR 1586, a no-brainer bill to improve and upgrade aviation safety, but containing within it two unrelated but key hot button issues that appropriated $26 billion in federal aid to the states. These two issues that were introduced into the bill in Amendment 4575 by Patty Murray (D - WA)

The real test came yesterday when the bill came up for a motion to end debate, cloture in other words, and it passed by 61 to 49, with the two Republican votes from Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voting with the majority.

Why this is important should be obvious: the states are really hurting right about now.

The Recession of 2008-09 is now taking its toll on the states which are facing budgetary shortfalls, like the one here in Texas. States will have to make draconian cuts in their expenditures; cuts are most likely in the two areas that states are usually responsible for: health care and education.

$16 billion of the $26 billion will be distributed to the states so they can make their Medicaid payments, that is, upping the federal government’s percent coverage of state Medicaid programs.

The remaining $10 billion will be distributed to the states to prevent an estimated layoff of 300,000 state workers, mostly teachers, but also police and firemen.

The most populous states, obviously, will receive the larger proportions of these funds. Texas, it is projected by the US Department of Education could avoid laying off 10,000 teachers. That is, of course if Texas' governor, Rick Perry, doesn't try to play 'find the pea' as he did earlier when the feds gave him $3 billion to do pretty much the same thing.

And for the most part, these layoffs have already taken place. We are just a few weeks away from the start of the school year, some areas are closer than others, and hirings and firings have already taken place. These funds will allow districts either to recall teachers that have been laid off, or in other cases, to restore days to the school calendar that have been chopped off as a result of budgetary cutbacks.

The Senate heavily amended the house bill, so it will need to be re-voted on in the House before President Obama can sign it. With the House currently in recess until September it would normally look like this is a case of closing the barn door after the horses have bolted.

Normally, except it looks like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will call the House back into session to get this matter taken care of before the opening of schools.

Oh well, guess they’ll have to put off for another day those August Town Hall meetings that we have all come to hate.

Local Jobs for America Act Will Save A Quarter Million Education Jobs

When congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, something that ultimately cost a few of them their jobs, it was the private sector that was the chief beneficiary. Banks that were on the verge of failing got a leg up. Automobile builders were propped up.

And America did not sink into a years-long depression to rival the one we had in the 1930’s.

A depression that we ultimately clawed ourselves out of with a massive government spending program known as World War II.

So now the banks are healthy, the stock market is up, and unemployment has ceased to increase.

But now we are poised at the edge of a new abyss at the state and local level. California is but the first state to find itself in severe financial straits largely because it handcuffs itself every year when it has to pass a budget with a 2/3ds majority in their state house. Other states, including Texas, where an $11 billion shortfall is projected in the next budget cycle.

The next cycle of jobs to be lost are those in the public sector. As states run out of money to pay its teachers, policemen, firemen and first responders, they will have to start trimming the job rolls.

Enter New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey who has taken a lead in urging those in the US Senate to immediately take under consideration a bill recently filed by Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa. SB 3206 sponsored by Tom Harkin and 26 senate co-sponsors, known as the Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010, which allocates $23 billion to be distributed to the states on a student per capita basis in order to restore reductions in state funding for salaries of those working in public school education.

Congressman Hinchey, in his press release, explains that the US Congress had passed this $23 billion allocation in December and sent it to the Senate, but the Senate, which has yet to act on the bill, decided it wanted to act on these allocations on a piecemeal basis.

Fine then. In April Rep George Miller of CA-7, who makes education his hobbyshop, filed HR 4812, the Local Jobs for America Act, which restored this $23 billion allocation for educators as well as for those of other employees who are paid through state coffers.

Then Harkin filed his bill which specifically targets educators, and contains language borrowed from Miller’s bill, with the $23 billion figure. If the Senate acts quickly, before states make draconian decisions in their next round of budgeting, the House can respond on a timely basis and get these funds released to the states after Barack Obama signs the legislation into law.

Saving, it is projected, a quarter of a million jobs in public education. Jobs that will otherwise be lost due to state budget cutbacks that are the direct result of a decrease in revenue, a time-delayed consequence of the 2007-2009 Recession.

Jobs that, once lost, are difficult to put back because a new generation would have to be recruited and trained up to meet growing education needs.

Because like it or not, the population is not going to go down and education of the next generation is a necessary requirement as competition for the limited resource known as superior intelligence and know-how becomes severe.

As it will.

Really, there is no choice here.

Rep. Hinchey has a “Dear Colleague” letter that he is sending to his colleagues in the Senate urging their immediate action on this. You can sign a similar one by going here to the National Education Association and entering your zip code.

Really, there is no choice here.

Is the Recession Resolving the Illegal Alien Problem?

Whenever they want Americans to talk about anything other than what is important in their lives, Republicans will haul out the issue of illegal immigration. But now, according to this MSNBC article the issue just may be resolving itself.

Because of the recession.

“Immigrants jump back and forth across borders all the time, and the recession-driven movement from the United States to points south is not yet registering as a mass exodus. But it is increasingly easy to find workers who have decided that they are better off weathering the downturn in their ancestral homelands.”

“In Washington, the Guatemalan Embassy reports a substantial uptick in the number of nationals walking in to apply for travel documents. At U.S. airports, airline agents and government officials describe increased winking and nodding as illegal immigrants ‘self-deport’ with no hassle from authorities.”

“‘When somebody is already showing that they intend to depart the United States, it doesn't serve any interest for us to serve them a notice to appear before an immigration court,’ said Lloyd Easterling, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ‘That isn't good stewardship of tax dollars.’”

“At Valdemar Travel in Takoma Park, the proportion of one-way air tickets south has reached unprecedented levels, nearing 60 percent of the firm's business earlier this year, manager Devin Reyes said.”

Wouldn’t that be a shame if Republicans lost the “bloody shirt” that they like to wave about? And it’s ironic that the thing that appears to be resolving this issue is the thing that they rail about in the strongest of terms: that unemployment continues to rise despite the TARP and Stimulus Package.

Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of Obama’s Address

Did you miss the President’s address to the joint session of Congress the other night? I didn’t and am here to tell you that sitting through 56 minutes of pure genius, pure oratory skill, was worth all of the pauses as Congress, well, most of them anyway, sprang to their feet and gave ovation after ovation to the points that Barack Obama made.

But if you missed it, never fear. Barack Obama has a 9:05 minute condensed version of the address that neatly clips the minute after endless minute of applause.

I have to say though, one result of cutting this down has an interesting effect. If you watch behind the President, you see Nancy Pelosi bouncing up and down in and out of her chair as if there was a spring in it.

That Bobby Jindal came on after Obama and delivered his sing-song, homily-filled disaster is only icing on the cake of the evening’s proceedings.

I am guessing that Jindal’s speech inspired in word if not in deed, this cartoon by Tony Auth.