Public Services at risk: Cuts in Teachers, Libraries, Fire Departments, Salaries

[Karmadillo]

One can only hope the Little People will realize these cuts are a small price to pay for glory of the Forever War and the Bank Bailout.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/BUDG01_20091031-222608/302940/

Take $60 million out of Chesterfield County's $1.2 billion budget, and these are some of the things that could disappear:

•jobs for 225 teachers and 32 school resource officers, 30 firefighters and 30 police officers;

•four libraries and a couple of fire stations; and

•10 government and public school departments, including health, planning, finance and budget.
And then take away 2 percent of the pay for school employees who still have jobs.

Chesterfield is painting a grim picture to prepare the public for an anticipated $60 million shortfall in next year's budget for general government and schools. And that's before other potential cuts in state aid to localities when the General Assembly and a new governor adopt a two-year budget next spring.

"There have to be changes in what and how services will be delivered to the community," said Allan M. Carmody, director of budget and management.

But Chesterfield is far from alone. More than 100 Virginia localities say they will be less able to provide public services in the budget year that begins July 1 than they can now, according to a survey released recently by the Virginia Municipal League and Virginia Association of Counties.

The localities will have less federal stimulus money to fill the gaps created by declining local and state revenues, but demand for services is increasing in a recession that has eliminated thousands of jobs in the region.

more...

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/BUDG01S1_20091031-211803/302890/

Goochland schools face staff cuts because of budget

Goochland County schools will have to cut staff because of budget reductions, school officials say.

The cuts are in response to the county's projected revenue shortfall of $2.5 million this year and $5.4 million next year.

In an Oct. 6 letter to school Superintendent Linda Underwood, County Administrator Rebecca T. Dickson wrote that in 2011 local funding for schools will be cut by 15 percent, or $2.9 million. The county also is asking the school system to cut $650,000 from this year's $27.1 million budget.

The school system employs about 400 workers, including 200 teachers.

Underwood met with nearly 300 of those staff members Wednesday afternoon to discuss the reduced funding. She hasn't said how many staff members could be cut because of the budget shortfall.

"Tragically, we will have to make reductions in staff," she added. "Eighty percent of our budget goes toward contracted staff, so we don't have much left in terms of other things we can cut."

more...

[donco6]

1. I was talking to a teacher in Jeffco, CO Friday night.

He said their district has to cut an enormous amount from next year's budget, closing schools and raising class sizes. He said, "I already have 25 in my class now. What's it going to go up to?"

It's a good question.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. BUT THE STIMULUS SAVED THOSE JOBS!!!!!!

for a year. . . . . . ..

[donco6]

3. Yes, for one year.

And now the state is just withering away. It's pretty scary.

[MichiganVote]

4. We didn't even make a year in Mi. By the end of the year, cuts per pupil=$300.

An employee blood bath of lay offs coming soon. Early childhood programs will be cut altogether.

[Tansy_Gold]

5. BUT OBAMA SAVED THE BANKS!!!!!!

Can you tell my sarcasm has gone beyond merely dripping???

We need productive jobs to give people spending power to buy the things they make. We have to stop throwing all our wealth at the already wealthy.

We have to start taxing the wealthy especially on their UNEARNED income. We have to, or we are going down the drain.

And that's what the whole Obama administration has been in denial about since long before Day One.

But too many on DU don't get that. They think it was necessary to throw $24 TRILLION at fucking Wall Street, and give the money to GM and Chrysler executives so they could screw over the union workers, and toss sops in the form of "stimulus" money at the states.

It's stupid, it's just plain stupid, and it gives me damn little satisfaction to say I saw it coming almost a year ago. After the jeering died and Geithner was nominated, I knew it was going to be a disaster.

Whether we will ever come out of it, I don't know. I'm losing faith.


But not hope.



TG

[MichiganVote]

7. I completely understand how you feel and I have no doubt that the wealthy

by any annual measure have been living very, very, high off the hog for far too long. The result is a tipsy economy and it is barely stabilized by some measures and not stable at all by the 'on the street' measures.

And I want the money back. We will need the money back. We have no choice but to get the money back.

I will say what is probably going to be very unpopular with you. What the banks did to the whole nation, the banks AND the auto industry did to the entire state of Michigan. If you lived here you would know that without the loans to the auto industry, the costs of education would be the least of our problems in this state. Our homeless numbers have skyrocketed and jobs are about nil. People are hungry, worried and scared even with the auto loans. So that means a republican stands a good chance of getting, not earning, the governors office next time around. Another disaster waiting.

So, yes, they did us in. Just pay the money back. Its extremely necessary going forward.

[Tansy_Gold]

13. I'm a native midwesterner.

I have family, lots of 'em, back in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan. I know how it is.

And I know how the banks screwed you over, and I do not have one single shred of doubt in my mind that there was underlyin racism, too. Can't have a major US city, home to a major US industry, filled with you-know-whats who are making damn good wages and sendin' their kids to college and buyin' vacation homes and new cars. It wasn't just union wages -- it was that some of those union members were people of color. They'd left the Jim Crow south and moved to where there were good jobs, and after the war (WW2, for those who may have forgotten) with the GI Bill and then 1964 and the Civil Rights Bill and 1965 and the Voting Rights Bill, well, hell, them folks was gettin' too damn uppity.

What Katrina did to New Orleans was swift and sudden and oh so convenient, but what had been going on in Detroit and Flint and Sandusky and Akron and a hundred other midwest cities was insidious.

Couple weeks ago, someone posted a reply to one of my posts about jobs and they suggested that people went to Detroit 'cause that's where the jobs were. And I suggested it was the other way around, and that that's why the manufacturers all left the union north (pun intended) for the non-union south and cheaper labor, and then they went to even cheaper labor spots like Mexico and China. It's the people who draw the jobs FIRST, and then the jobs draw the people.

The problem with the bailouts was that they protected the banks without question -- no strings, no accountability, no nothin' -- and none of hte problems were addressed at all. But the problems with the auto industry, some of which were their own making, were only partly addressed, and usually the wrong ones. Worker wages and benefits and even retirees' benefits weren't really the problem. And cutting them wasn't going to save the jobs or save the factories or save Saturn or Pontiac.

I'm just angry. Angry as fucking hell. And I'm mostly angry and frustrated because I'm just one voice and I can't fucking do anything about fucking anything but listen to people cheer on the rampant stupidity.


Tansy Gold, who is NOT FUCKING STUPID.

[MichiganVote]

15. :) Thanks Tansy and if it helps I'm fucking pissed off too. I think I'm gonna be pissed for the 20

or so odd years.

What is truly frightening to me is that I do not believe for one minute that the banks and hedge funds are done yet. Its all just too goddamn easy for them yet. I don't believe they are scared enough yet.

Jail. Jail in Detroit or some of the other cities they have ruined would help me sleep at night.

[Catshrink]

9. We have 28-40 in ours

unless they are the AP classes and some sped classes. The average kid gets screwed and shoved into large classes. This, and a 10% salary cut.

[AllentownJake]

6. The stimulus stopped the bleeding on this for one year

I would not want to be in elected office in any municpality or state in 2010 or 2011.

[Nikki Stone1]

8. The real economy isn't growing, despite what is happening on wall street.

That's the issue.

[LWolf]

10. My state isn't any different.

We're looking at 100 more cuts in my district alone if we don't pass a bond in January increasing taxes on corporations.

If that happens in our little district, I'll be at risk.

Again.

[Hannah Bell]

11. more fuel for privatization of state services & income streams. bankers rubbing their hands in glee

just the result obama's big-money backers desired.

if you don't think it's true, look at the big overlap between the funders of chicago's charter school movement & the funders of obama.

[depakid]

12. Thank those who allowed 60 billion in federal revenue sharing to be stripped from the stimulus

Heck of a job there... and one that's likely to pay "dividends in 2010.

[madfloridian]

14. But there is over 4 billion going to states which raise the limit on charter schools.

How about that?

[MichiganVote]

16. And they will take that money and run too.

[Tansy_Gold]

17. run right to the bank. n/t

[donco6]

18. And we're one of them selling our souls for that money.

It's sickening.

[Karmadillo]

19. Is this why we elected Democrats in the last election?

nt