Breaking News of California's New Budget Proposal for 2009

So we all know that several states are in dire need of money because they were too stupid to save any money in the past when tax revenues were high. Many have asked for emergency bailout money from the federal government and have received a sypathetic ear almost everywhere.

Today governor Patterson of New York proposed a new budget that only increased 1% over last year! Glorious Revolution!!! I'm completely out of money so I'm just increasing what I spend by 1%. In a state where everything is regulated, taxed, incentivized and ueber-liberal, there will now be 88 new fees and/or taxes for those cash-strapped New Yarkers.

Some include an "iPod tax" that charges state and local sales tax for "digitally delivered entertainment services", State sales tax at movie theaters, sporting events, taxis, buses, limousines and cable and satellite TV and radio, costlier driving with the repeal of the 8-cents-per-gallon sales tax cap on motor and diesel motor fuel, plus and increase in the auto rental tax, tuition increases at state colleges, a 50 cent tax on cigars, no more sales tax break on clothes and shoes worth $110 or less, except during two weeks a year, higher taxes on wine, beer and flavored malt beverages. He would also impose an 18% tax on non-nutritional drinks like soda. The rich would pay more for luxury items through an additional 5% tax imposed on cars costing more than $60,000, aircraft costing more than $500,000, yachts costing at least $200,000 and jewelry and furs costing in excess of $20,000. In addition, a host of a fees, including those related to motor vehicle licensing and registration, parks and auto insurance, would go up, as would various state-imposed fines. Source here.

Glorious Revolution has obtained an exclusive copy of Republiliberal Governor Arnold Scharzenegger's notes for a news conference tomorrow and I have taken the liberty of posting them here. With both of my readers, this should help get the word out.

Fellow Citizens of the Great State of California, (to be read in an Austrian accent)

The following steps will be used to help ease the pain of the state checkbook.

1. Christmas lights-They are a waste of energy and a source of marital divisiveness. Christmas is an offensive Christian holiday anyway not celebrated by most progressives in California or at least not in the Bay Area.

2. Public television-Under the current tax code, too much valuable entertainment such as "Celtic Woman" and "Riverdance" has been given away for free for too long for those willing to watch the telethon commercials.

3. Drive In's-Old fashioned hamburgers and shakes have to be double taxed. If you want to enjoy them you will be paying dearly. They fatten you first of all and second of all, if you eat in your car you will be polluting the environment. "Idling eaters" would be ticketed.

4. Mini-Vans-This is an indirect tax on large families-Specifically bigoted "Pro-8" Mormon families. They are over-populating our already stressed planet with religious children and a mini-van tax should curb their overactive libidos. At least until the economy is back on track.

5. Carpet in General-Carpet is a petroleum product and contributes to the overall demise of mankind and must have a tax levied against it to promote eco-friendly floors such as dirt and bamboo.

6. Roast Beef-regular Glorious Revolution readers already know how much pollution those darn cows make.

7. Toilet Tax-Private johns will be taxed by the flush to deter water wasters and help with recent pay increases to the local sanitation workers union. Toilet paper will be extra. Citizens are counseled to compost their own waste and use it for composting home grown salsa gardens.

8. Fruit and Vegetable Tax-for those who don't heed afore-mentioned waste composting counsel.

9. Running Water tax-civilizations did without it for thousands of years and it didn't kill them...oh wait....

10. Grass Tax-any citizen with more than 10 square feet of lawn for their dog to do it's business on will be taxed at a rate of $5 per square foot per month until the grass dies and is replaced by xero-scaping.

11. Mail tax-this has been a service provided by the federal government but we are still going to tax it. It will still be available for those who really need it.

Hey at least we're not infringing upon the rights of i-pod owners like NY!! That's ridiculous.

Scary because you know some might actually be tried!

Thank you KSL!

Deseret News/ KSL-TV has done another wonderful piece of reporting in the Deseret News this week. Yesterday's paper had the following headline "Obama urges swift stimulus action" Directly below was a poll, which I have tried to take a picture of and post here. The poll asked a total of 406 people if they are currently employed. 57% said yes and 43% said no. Excuse me?! This jumped off the page at first (which I think goes along with their investigative reporting tactics that scare you to death to breathe on a foggy day when it's a full moon) What surprised me even more than Utah apparently having a 43% unemployment rate was the headline next to it that was related to the poll. "JOBS: Most Utah workers say they'll be employed in '09." Really? The same 406 people you asked if they were unemployed? Even more surprising was the fact that about 20% of the text in the article was explaining their poll numbers. "Twenty eight percent of the respondents were over the age 65 and most all of these people said they were not working. But 23 to 30 percent of those in the other age groups interviewed also said they were not employed, with the exception of those ages 35-44. For that age group just 12 percent said they were not employed"


Thanks for explaining yourself! You might want to conduct a poll of "workers" on people who are actually "working". Is this not alarming to anyone else? The poll on the front page was practically fabricated to induce reading. They might want to stop setting up their polling stations at the senior center and the local Labor Ready. I don't think that a poll of 406 people has much if many clout at all...and I didn't even go to journalism school. If Utah had even a 12% unemployment rate, we'd be more than twice the national average. Now that would be a front page news story!


In reaction to the Headline about the need for another stimulus, (which we were so nicely excluded from), I took this picture today at Costco. It is the line after checkout to show your receipt to just get out the door. There were so many people there on a Wednesday afternoon that had already paid, that the line was about 50 people long to just get out of the place. Most weren't just buying cheese and a pair of pants either. Apparently 50" flat screens were the hot buy today. Maybe KSL should do a news story about how there seems to be no recession or slow-down in spending in an isolated area of South Ogden Utah.

KSL might be better served to just run a classifieds site and call it good.

The Giant Checkbook in the Sky.....

For you small government folk out there, I have found a website to make your blood boil. I ran into it on accident today and decided to see how our great state of Utah is helped out by our federal government. To see the list of recipients and amounts they received through grants, and federally guaranteed loans and the such click here.

In 2006 alone, the federal government gave assistance to entities in the State of Utah totaling $10,559,308,443.

I understand the importance of federal tax dollars helping some organizations like schools, cities and veterans affairs but excuse me if I have a problem with Planned Parenthood of Utah receiving $1,281,330 of our tax dollars to run their agendas. This was not a loan to planned parenthood it was a grant to a "non-profit." Countdown to blood reaching boiling point in 2 minutes........Furthermore, why would the St. George H&R- freaking-Block need a federally guaranteed loan of $243,750? Doesn't H&R Block do well enough without the help of the taxpayer? You may be wondering why Joy-Luck Chinese restaurant is so much nicer. It may have been the $965,000 loan we gave them. You may want to take a look through the list and see the number of small businesses that our federal government gives loans/grants to.

I understand that the federal government has a responsibility to it's citizens but I can't remember where it is written that we give free money and federally guaranteed loans to private enterprise and left wing nut-jobs. Can't the private sector deal with Small Business Loans as well if not better than the government? Unless of course it was shoved into an economic rescue bill somewhere. Why is my government spending money in places like this? Why are we such a socially dependant society that subscribes to the mantra of- "I'll let someone take care of me"? Perhaps the answer lies within our own government's fiscal policies. Call it a new use for the term "trickle-down-effect".

Many fret that we may soon see a socialistic style government with Obama in office. As John McCain might put it "I have news for you my friends" we already do. Excuse me while I go read the constitution. This stuff has to be in there somewhere....doesn't it......???