Oh no! Maine is Naboo!
It would explain a lot, though.
Ankura Gungans, such as Rugor Nass, had a strong presence in the Gungan government.
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Oh no! Maine is Naboo! It would explain a lot, though. Ankura Gungans, such as Rugor Nass, had a strong presence in the Gungan government. We break our recent radio silence for this important message. New state cuts hit education, social services hardest Gov. John Baldacci ordered more than $63 million in midyear budget cuts Friday in a curtailment order that heavily targets state funding for education and social services programs. Faced with a two-year revenue shortfall approaching $400 million, [...] Well, the break in the weather (On Sunday it was 35 — 35! — when we woke up) has got us just a little giddy here at Downeast. Thoughts of Spring fill our heads. Not too long before we’ll be setting out tomato plants. Don’t forget the sunscreen! Oh yes, we’re excited too about budget [...] Susan Cover’s entry Want to see what your legislator is up to? at On Maine Politics(KJ) helpfully points us to this page at the Legislature; at the top there’s a listing of all bills (pdf – 141 pages, Excel – 4890 lines) proposed by the present legislature. At this point, most of them are just [...] Our legislature is in session and thus, as we’ve noted before, we’re all in some danger. If we acknowledge that the government is not completely separate from us, an alien entity, but to some extent a projection of our hopes and dreams, than we may have to also acknowledge that we may not be completely [...] From the short AP story: Gov. John Baldacci is unveiling a two-year state budget that includes plenty of pain for everyone. The $6.1 billion state spending package proposes deep cuts due to the recession and increased cost of providing services. It would eliminate 219 state positions, requiring 139 layoffs. It would trim some state tax [...] that the Governor reveals his plan for the next biennial budget (for the two years beginning July 1). The talk is that we can expect to be down $200 million, using the present biennium as a baseline. Many think this is overly optimistic. We’ll post news on how the proposal affects education when we know [...] That was the title of a recent article in the Kennebec Journal. The legislature’s Appropriations Committee began hearings today on the $140 million “gap” in the current year’s budget. Some solons speak of this occasion as an “opportunity.” Heaven help us! I was reminded again today of Mark Twain’s aphorism: “No man’s life, liberty, or [...] Camille Paglia is always an interesting read, even when she’s way out there, IMO. In the run-up to the election she was an Obama supporter and strongly supportive of Sarah Palin. Here’s the opening of her latest Salon piece: But then I gulped when Obama also pledged educational reform by putting state-of-the-art computers in every [...] So says Madison Powers at CQ Politics (“Recession Realities: Why The Worst is Yet to Come“, 11/26/08). What caught our eye was his projection of the future of state budgets. At least 41 states face budget shortfalls. In some states, the percentage is quite large, at or above 10% in the hardest hit states. But [...] At the Freakonomics Blog at the NYT: The Big Three and Underfunded Pensions (12/2/08). They point to (and quote from) this abstract (“Public Pensions are Underfunded”)in the NBER Digest. The extent to which public pensions are underfunded has been obscured by governmental accounting rules, which allow pension liabilities to be discounted at expected rates of [...] What follows is an excerpt from the much longer (32 pages) Final Impact Sheet released yesterday. This excerpt is of just the curtailments planned for education — so far. Bureau of the Budget’s Curtailment Page. MDOE Commissioner’s Informational letter, “Curtailment Effect on Subsidy” Click on each to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further. [...] It’s really just a formalization of what we knew was coming. And there’s more to come. This is just what the governor can do without the consent of the legislature. State Cuts $80M, Kennebec Journal, 11/20/08 Gov. John Baldacci signed an executive order Wednesday to cut spending by nearly $80 million to help close a [...] James Stewart as George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” During the go-go investing years, school districts, transit agencies and other government entities were quick to jump into the global economy, hoping for fast gains to cover growing pension costs and budgets without raising taxes. Deals were arranged by armies of persuasive [...] Those rascally right-wingers over at the Maine Heritage Policy Center are up to no good. They’ve developed a web site that allows you, the taxpayer, to figure out what this large enterprise called government — including local school districts — costs! Take a look for yourself: MaineOpenGov.org The site is a little clunky, and a [...] |
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