Infinite Unknown

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — California will delay paying $2.9 billion of subsidies to schools and counties in September, a month earlier than projected, to save cash amid an impasse that has left the state without a budget for 54 days.

The state’s top financial officials — the controller, treasurer and finance director — told lawmakers today that the 90-day deferrals need to start next month instead of October to make sure there’s enough money to pay bondholders. The amount is in addition to $3.2 billion the state pushed back in July.

California began its fiscal year on July 1 without a spending plan after Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats who lead the Legislature remained deadlocked over how to fill a $19 billion deficit. Controller John Chiang has warned he may need to issue IOUs within two weeks to pay for everything from supplies to contracted services and health-care costs if the impasse continues into next month.

“This is the salt in the wound,” said Rick Pratt, assistant executive director of the West Sacramento-based California School Boards Association, which represents districts statewide. “It’s the state taking its cash flow problem and making it a school district problem,” he said. He said deferrals from previous years have raised costs while the state has cut aid.

The deferrals will help the state meet four major payments in October that total about $1.74 billion, according to H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger’s budget office. He said that includes about $803 million in interest on general- obligation bonds.

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Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Government, IOUs, Politics, Schools, U.S.

PD FILE, 2009 The entrance to the Bohemian Grove in 2009.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to address a throng of rich and powerful men on Friday under the towering redwoods at the Bohemian Grove as the annual encampment along the Russian River in Monte Rio enters its final weekend.

No one other than Bohemian Club members and their guests will hear the governor’s speech, which is – like everything that transpires during the 17-day midsummer enclave – done in absolute privacy.

Plutocrats and powerbrokers, including former presidents, annually flock to the 2,700-acre wooded retreat where neither women, other than grove employees, nor outsiders of either gender are permitted.

“It’s a private gentleman’s club,” club spokesman Sam Singer said. “People are coming to get away from the duties of daily life. They don’t desire to be on the front page of The Press Democrat or The New York Times.

“In real life, they get there often enough,” he said.

The club has about 2,000 members.

Mixing their revelry and weird rituals with serious issues, the Bohemians hear from a series of speakers, this year including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who discussed “the future of news” and former secretaries of state George Shultz and James Baker on international relations and terrorism threats.

The speakers list, including ex-President George H. W. Bush in 1995 and not-yet President Richard Nixon in 1967, remains a well-guarded secret. Continue reading »

Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bohemian Grove, Economy, Global News, Government, Politics, U.S.

Soldiers watch for criminal activity in the US-Mexico border.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday mobilized members of the California National Guard as part of a federal effort to deter drug trafficking and illegal immigration along the border with Mexico.

His order supports President Barack Obama’s plan to have 1,200 National Guard troops assist with federal border protection, customs and immigration agents.

The move comes amid a national debate over an Arizona law that directs police to conduct immigration checks when they are questioning people about possible legal violations. There must be a “reasonable suspicion” the person is in the country illegally.

Obama asked California to deploy 224 Guard members for as long as a year, but California National Guard spokesman Lt. Patrick Bagley said as many as 260 soldiers and airmen will head to the border by Oct. 1. Continue reading »

Tags: Arizona, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, California, Government, Immigration, Mexico, Obama administration, Politics, U.S.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Schwarzenegger administration today ordered State Controller John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the federal minimum allowed by law — $7.25 an hour for most state workers.

The instructions from the Department of Personnel Administration exclude roughly 37,000 state workers in six bargaining units that recently came to tentative labor agreements with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Some employees, such as doctors and lawyers, would get no pay because federal exempts them from any minimum wage requirement. Managers, supervisors and others who don’t get paid for working more than 40 hours per week would receive $455 per week until a budget deal got done. Continue reading »

Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Economy, Global News, Government, Politics, U.S.

Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, has warned American investors should be more worried about the risk of default of the state of California than of Greece’s current debt woes.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is desperately trying to reduce California’s $20bn deficit Photo: BLOOMBERG

Mr Dimon told investors at the Wall Street bank’s annual meeting that “there could be contagion” if a state the size of California, the biggest of the United States, had problems making debt repayments. “Greece itself would not be an issue for this company, nor would any other country,” said Mr Dimon. “We don’t really foresee the European Union coming apart.” The senior banker said that JP Morgan Chase and other US rivals are largely immune from the European debt crisis, as the risks have largely been hedged.

California however poses more of a risk, given the state’s $20bn (£13.1bn) budget deficit, which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is desperately trying to reduce.

Earlier this week, the state’s legislature passed bills that will cut the deficit by $2.8bn through budget cuts and other measures. However the former Hollywood film star turned politician is looking for $8.9bn of cuts over the next 16 months, and is also hoping for as much as $7bn of handouts from the federal government.

Earlier this week, John Chiang, the state’s controller, said that if a workable plan to reduce the deficit and increase cash levels is not reached soon, he will have to return to issuing IOU’s, forcing state workers to take additional unpaid leave and potentially freezing spending. Continue reading »

Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Debt, Economy, EU, Global News, Government, Greece, IOUs, JPMorgan, Politics, U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California’s main debt rating was cut on Wednesday by Standard & Poor’s, which said the government of the most populous U.S. state could nearly run out of cash in March — and another rating cut might follow.

The state government’s budget gap of nearly $20 billion over the next year and a half leaves it in a precarious situation, requiring tax increases or spending cuts, either of which may slow economic recovery, the agency said in a statement.

See also:

- California’s worst-in-nation credit rating cut again (Sacramento Bee)

- California downgraded by S&P, weighing on state’s bonds (MarketWatch)

“If economic or revenue trends substantially falter, we could lower the state rating during the next six to 12 months,” S&P said after cutting the rating on $63.9 billion of California’s general obligation debt one notch to A- from A.

The new level is four notches above “junk” status, a level at which many investors refuse to buy debt.

“The big question is, is there any fear they will get downgraded out of investment grade (so) you may have to sell … that’s where I think it would get interesting or hairy,” said Eaton Vance portfolio manager Evan Rourke.

Bond prices did not move much, though, since many expected the downgrade, he said.

S&P’s downgrade was overdue because the state’s revenues have been so weak, said Dick Larkin, director of credit analysis at Herbert J. Sims Co Inc in Iselin, New Jersey. “Frankly I can’t understood why it took S&P so long,” he said. “They could have made that decision back in September.”

$1 BILLION SHORT IN MARCH Continue reading »

Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Debt, Economy, Government, S&P 500, U.S.

As if Schwarzenegger does not have enough other problems to solve:
- California Budget Is Already in the Red Only 10 Weeks After Passage

California is set to ban big screen plasma TVs

Big screen plasma televisions are to be banned in California because they use too much energy.

In a world first, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has given his backing to the crackdown on sets more than 40 inches wide.

These liquid crystal display and plasma high definition sets can use as much as three times the power of smaller cathode ray models.

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Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Government, Politics, TV, U.S.

Yes, Lindsey Williams is repeating himself all of the time, also advertising his new DVDs and he could have said all of it in maybe 5-10 minutes but …

… I did not want to keep this information from you.

Remember this is just “information” of what Lindsey Williams has been told.

“Within two years you will not recognize America.”

“After two years you will be so poor you will not be able to rebel.”

“Gold and silver are all you can rely on.”

“By 2012 the dollar will be dead.”

“War is planned after two years, starting in the middle east area and spreading to the entire world.”

October 19, 2009

Part 1 of 8:

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Tags: Alex Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, Bush administration, Church, Conspiracy, DHS, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Gold, Homeland Security, John McCain, Lindsey Williams, Obama administration, Politics, Religion, Silver, Taxpayers, U.S.

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will know within a month whether a $1.1 billion drop in revenue collections is part of a growing budget shortfall or an isolated event, his budget spokesman said.

Revenue in the three months ended Sept. 30 was 5.3 percent less than assumed in the $85 billion annual budget, state controller John Chiang reported yesterday. Income tax receipts led the gap, as unemployment reached 12.2 percent in August.

“The culprit here appears to be estimated quarterly personal income tax statements,” H.D. Palmer, the governor’s budget spokesman, said yesterday. “The numbers are cause for concern, but the issue now for us is to determine if this is a one-time event or whether it has more long-term implications.”

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Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, budget, California, Government, Politics, U.S.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, speaks at a news conference in Sacramento, California, July 1, 2009. Photographer: Ken James/Bloomberg News

July 21 (Bloomberg) — California lawmakers reached an agreement with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over how to close a $26 billion budget deficit that pushed the most-populous U.S. state to the brink of insolvency.

The deal, reached by legislative leaders after two months of frequently acrimonious negotiations, would slash spending for schools, public works and welfare programs amid the longest recession since the 1930s. If approved by the full Senate and Assembly, the agreement will also siphon money from municipalities, force companies and individuals to pay income taxes sooner and make it more difficult to receive state aid.

“We came to a basic agreement, a budget agreement,” Schwarzenegger told reporters outside his office last evening. “This is a budget that has no tax increases and this is a budget that is cutting spending and it deals with the entire $26 billion deficit.”

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Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Economy, Politics, Schools, U.S.