I've been holding this in

[klmno]

because I didn't want to get political but now that I'm positive it's coming from all parties- democrats, republicans, and independents, I just have to get this off my chest.

This state, like many others, has a serious budget issue and must make cuts. Here are the things getting cut out altogether or getting major decreases in funding: k-12 education including mentoring and breakfast programs, most mental health resources & programs including inpatient beds for minors (state level and funding to local jurisdictions), the only Department of Juvenile Justice facility for non-violent juveniles recently closed altogether forcing those to be housed with violent juvenile offenders, preventative programs for high-risk juveniles, assistance for children to get medical insurance, assistance to families in need, ALL state funding to provide services for the homeless, and it's proposed that state employees must take 5 unpaid furlough days over the next two years, probably won't get raises for two years, and the state will probably contribute less to employee's retirement funds.

Now if that isn't bad enough in revealing what the priorities are in this state and causng shivers when I think of the long term results of this, it really made me cringe when I read the ONE thing the legislators are complaining about. Are you ready??

The five unpaid days that state employees must take over the next two years. That, apparently, is causing a major stir.

I won't even get into some of the stupid laws being passed (like where a concealed gun can be taken) and some of the much needed ones being pushed aside to be dealt with "next year" or failing altogether- like some pertaining to sentencing guidelines for juveniles and implementing recommendations from commissions they formed (and paid) to study issues pertaining to youth for the past two years. Of course that probably has something to do with the fact that the commissions recommended the exact opposite of what they are doing. (No matter a person's position on concealed weapons, is it really the more important than our youth?)

I stand firm on this opinion: people in authority seem to have less common sense all the time and it HAS to have a lot to do with the problems our difficult child's have.

 

[klmno]

Oooppsss...I did it again....this was meant for the WC...can a moderator please move it??

(sorry)

 

[busywend]

Well, many in the public sector have had to take Furloughs or unpaid leaves. So, why are gov't employees so different? Funny THAT is the thing they worry about most. Not reforming a child or helping someone less fortunate than themselves.

It is a strange time we live in.

 

[klmno]

You'd think it might cross their minds that they are lucky to not be laid off and they still have jobs. They are proposing to stop accepting new applications for uninsured kids to get public insurance altogether- that would blow the opportunity for difficult child to get medication insurance when he gets home.

They did pass one thing that was good- they are forcing private insurance companies to cover kids on the autism spectrum. I wish I could say there was anything else at all that seemed to be in a child's best interest seriously considered.

 

[Lothlorien]

Five days over two years? Yeah, cry me a river. We took a 50% cut in pay this past year. I don't want to hear about a 5 day furlough taken over two years.

 

[klmno]

No kidding, Loth! ...but such a stink has been made by the legislators (of all parties) that now they are being told they'll get a 3% bonus at the end of 2011 if they go along with this plan.

 

[muttmeister]

It's just more of the same. I think our system is broken; it does not work. Unless you have mega-bucks to spend on lobbying, your voice does not count. The politicians are so busy fighting each other, they are totally oblivious to what is happening to the people who they expect to re-elect them. I used to be very politically involved; I have stopped listening to most of the news and I have stopped reading a lot of the newspaper because what is going on makes me livid but nobody cares. I can write letters, march in the streets, get involved, try to get my candidates elected, etc., etc. but unless I have a million dollars to donate to the political fund for jerk X or jerk Y, they don't give a rat's patootie what I think.

 

[KTMom91]

Oh, yeah, the furlough days are a HUGE deal here in CA. I can't feel too badly for them...I mean, Hubby got laid off, and the district is really discouraging teachers from taking any time off, so I'm scrambling to get six days a month on a consistent basis.

 

[DammitJanet]

I know who should take a few unpaid leave days. Congress!

I am convinced they could work more efficiently if they tried. Maybe if we took a nickle off their salaries per word spoken or typed. That would clear up the gobbledygook. They should speak clearly and succinctly. Laws and bills dont need to be 1500 pages. 2 will do.

If we cut down on the wordiness, they will get more done and can work less time. Salaries can be less! Federal budget can get worked on!

Yeah I know....DAMMIT JANET for President!

Im on the Time Warp ticket

 

[klmno]

You ladies are exactly right- and MM- I feel sure that's why the laws and policies that are important to me are being put off- to keep controversy down so they all can get re-elected. They formed several commission a few years ago to study the juvenile system- both in regards to juvenile offenders and mental health. These two commissions had knowledgable people and made valid reports with good recommendations that most warrior moms would agree with. These people were paid with tax payers dollars of course. After the first year, they were sent back to study some more and another commission was formed to study the impact on the state resources if the recommendations were to be implemented (mind you, actual implementation was being put off during this period). So now, that year of all those commissions has passed and now they are putting off implementing any of them supposedly due to budget shortfall, and cutting funding to the little that had been there to begin with. But they are spending time and money on more commissions and laws/policies that frankly, are just not on the top of my priority list. The only cuts of funding I saw listed in this stuff pertained to k-12 public education, juvenile reform, mental health, and the homeless. Yet it sure looks like they are wasting a ton of money elsewhere. I call that ...well, sickening. Of course they are all making 6 digit salaries.

They will cut 10 jobs of people on a low end of the totem pole to "create" 3 jobs for higher people. But they can't seem to figure out why our economy hoovers- because most can't afford a typical lifestyle anymore and the rich are getting everything while the poor and middle class get poorer. It's all of them. The decent, knowledgable people who have common sense and could run for office and get something done won't bother trying because they can't get elected and would be far out-numbered in there if they tried. Honestly, I'm disappointed in our country these days- I have been for a few years but it seems to be getting worse with time.

 

[donna723]

Our state economy has gone right down the toilet! The State employees here (of which I am one!) have already taken several HUGE hits and there will be more. We haven't had a raise in four years and our insurance has gone up every year so we actually have a lot less to get by on now than we had several years ago. We have several thousand fewer State employees than we did just a few years ago, thanks to 'buy-outs'. Then they proposed a series of 'furloughs' but turned it down in favor of permanently laying off about 1,000 more people. Then separately, they had another 500+ 'buy-outs' to people in Higher Education, the university system, which means bigger classes and more tuition increases. The Dept. of Childrens Services and Mental Health have also lost hundreds of positions which is really scary. And we have a system for medical care for the 'low income' people (TennCare) that is so full of fraud and abuse of the system that it siphons off a HUGE percentage of the state's funds and will bankrupt the state if something drastic isn't done soon.

We have no State income tax here, only sales tax revenue, so in a recession that's not good. Nobody who favored a state income tax would ever get elected but then they complain when services are reduced! But we also see so much waste! Every department keeps adding more and more layers of highly paid management on the upper levels while the poor little schlunks like me (the ones who actually do the work!) get by on less and less every year.

But in the middle of all this financial chaos and people losing their jobs ... we have the "BUNKER"! That's what it has been christened! In the midst of all this, our beloved governor has decided to build a lavish, extravagant underground party facility UNDER the Governors Mansion so all the politicians would have this big palace-like facility to entertain their wealthier campaign contributors in the style they are accustomed to! Only the best for the 'party bunker'! So while people are losing their jobs and there aren't enough caseworkers to investigate child abuse cases and mental health care gets worse and worse, they are literally pouring millions and millions of dollars into A HOLE IN THE GROUND!!! I just keep repeating to myself, "Just two more years and you can retire ... just TWO more years!"

 

[klmno]

Well, there goes my Plan C to move back there, Donna. I probably wouldn't be able to find work and difficult child's father must be hiding in that bunker. LOL!

I just visualize a few years down the road in this state- after the homeless and uncared for have died, received a death penalty for flipping out & killing someone, or moved out of the state, then all these in authority now will be bragging about how this worked because all the good citizens living in the state then have jobs and don't need supports.

 

[donna723]

A few people have proposed that they turn the party bunker into a homeless shelter but I don't think that went over very well!

 

[Star*]

Another WAG THE DOG scenario.....they shake their right hand over here for something they KNOW will upset the general population while they sneak 100 bills across the border.

Mostly we're just pigeons with our wings clipped. I'm not even sure voting counts anymore.

 

[GoingNorth]

My mother, who hasn't missed an election since she got her US citizenship in the late fifties, says that more and more it's a case of "Hold your nose and vote"

 

[witzend]

Another WAG THE DOG scenario.....they shake their right hand over here for something they KNOW will upset the general population while they sneak 100 bills across the border.

Mostly we're just pigeons with our wings clipped. I'm not even sure voting counts anymore.

Of course voting counts! Sometimes it even counts two or three times!

 

[witzend]

Honestly, I believe that there is a certain amount of purposeful "dumbing down" going on here. When we are talking about furloughs and such, I think we have to remember that society is expecting these people to accomplish the same results with less time and materials available. When we cut social programs, whether we are talking about school, public health care needs, mental health needs, or recreational sports, we leave people vulnerable.

Vulnerable people are easy targets for people with nefarious motives. And I'm not just talking about crooks. Everyone wants to feel important and to belong to a powerful portion of society. The less ability to think independently you have, the more likely you are going to allow someone to tell you how intelligent you are for being on their team, and the more likely you are to do their bidding whether that is to sell meth or to vote a party line each and every time you go into the voting booth.

 

[Lothlorien]

My mother, who hasn't missed an election since she got her US citizenship in the late fifties, says that more and more it's a case of "Hold your nose and vote"

I love this!!!

 

[DammitJanet]

The less ability to think independently you have, the more likely you are going to allow someone to tell you how intelligent you are for being on their team, and the more likely you are to do their bidding whether that is to sell meth or to vote a party line each and every time you go into the voting booth.

Witz, you are so right about this. I have seen it with my own eyes. We had to ask everyone when we interviewed them at Social Services if they were registered to vote and if not, we signed them right up.

The vans from the candidates would go out into public housing units weeks before elections and pass out pamphlets and cookies raving about their candidates. They would give out ride schedules in order to bring in loads of people to vote. I would see all these people in the parking lot when I would go to lunch. It was like a party!

 

[flutterby]

I'm so sick of the in-fighting and back-biting, I could puke.

I used to be very politically involved. Like MM, I don't read or watch the news anymore. I'm sick of it. Everyone is so busy "being right" that nothing is getting done.

This is no longer the country that I was raised to be proud of.