{"id":566612,"date":"2010-05-17T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=84900"},"modified":"2010-05-17T11:00:28","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T15:00:28","slug":"states-report-lower-than-expected-tax-revenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/566612","title":{"rendered":"States Report Lower-Than-Expected Tax Revenue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All that hand-wringing over California being the next Greece might not be for nothing. States are starting to <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704247904575240663734802790.html\">report<\/a> their April tax collections, and several have announced numbers far lower than expected even a few weeks ago, auguring bigger deficits and budget shortfalls for next year. The Wall Street Journal reports that collections are down 26 percent in California, 12 percent in Pennsylvania and 10 percent in Kansas. States are starting to look to the federal government &#8212; itself under pressure to reduce deficit spending &#8212; to make up the shortfall:<span id=\"more-84900\"><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Kansas lawmakers are hoping the federal government will help. After  the state&#8217;s April revenue missed estimates set just two weeks earlier,  the legislature responded  by changing the state budget to assume  Congress will extend more federal support for Medicaid through the end  of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Increased federal spending on Medicaid&#8230;was a major component of last year&#8217;s stimulus package, and it  has helped many states prop up their budgets. But it is uncertain that  Congress will approve more such funding.<\/p>\n<p>In some states, governors  are responding to the April shortfalls on their own. Missouri&#8217;s April  tax revenue decreased $13.2 million, or 3.6 percent, from the same month a year  ago. State budget director Linda Luebbering ordered agencies to hold  back $45 million in appropriated spending because tax collections were  so far below projections.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Other states have already taken drastic measures to close budget shortfalls. For instance, in March, Arizona <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/03\/19\/health\/policy\/19arizona.html\">decided to end<\/a> its state health insurance program for children, eliminating free coverage for 47,000 kids. California <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/USA\/Politics\/2010\/0515\/Schwarzenegger-calls-for-deep-California-budget-cuts\">might end<\/a> its welfare-to-work program as well as a number of child-care initiatives. And South Carolina <a href=\"http:\/\/www.starbulletin.com\/news\/20100517_states_budget_problems_cut_into_help_for_children.html\">has closed<\/a> group homes for children and a program to help youths emerging from prison sentences to get jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All that hand-wringing over California being the next Greece might not be for nothing. States are starting to report their April tax collections, and several have announced numbers far lower than expected even a few weeks ago, auguring bigger deficits and budget shortfalls for next year. The Wall Street Journal reports that collections are down [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}