Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Budget cutters find a new obstacle in their paths
The various state courts are determining that state laws and constitutions are requiring more than some are budgeting.
State budget battles — usually between governors and legislatures — are increasingly involving another branch of government, the judiciary. In recent weeks, court decisions have upended budget negotiations in California, Nevada and New Jersey, and more cases are pending in other states.Screwing the helpless is not as easy as once imagined by Republican/Teabaggers.
Many of the recent decisions are the direct result of the economic downturn. The courts are finding that many struggling states are not meeting their responsibilities as they strive to save money. And because many states have been forced to close budget gaps year after year, these decisions are having an outsized impact, and intensifying fiscal pressures...
The courts have also delivered stinging rebukes to some states, finding that they sometimes broke the law in their efforts to cut spending and find new sources of revenue to cope with the aftermath of the Great Recession. The courts said their measures illegally hurt local governments, poor schoolchildren and prisoners.
Cases pending in other states could affect education spending in particular, an area where courts have been ordering states to spend more money, or to distribute it more fairly, for years. Education advocates in several states say recent budget cuts have effectively undone the gains they had made in the courts.
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