Saturday, January 17, 2009

California Suspending Tax Refunds, Welfare And More

What happens in a state where there is no budget in place?

They stop sending their taxpayers their refunds, put welfare on hold and no more student grants.

LA Times on the fiasco in California, due to the fact that they have not voted on their budget.

Reporting from Sacramento -- The state will suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, Controller John Chiang announced Friday.

Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.


Other programs aside for a minute, those tax refunds belong to the people of California, whether they overpaid or whatever the reasoning, this is a case of the state owing money to the people and refusing to pay them because of the state's administrative incompetence.

Unacceptable.

The payments to be frozen include nearly $2 billion in tax refunds; $300 million in cash grants for needy families and the aged, blind and disabled; and $13 million in grants for college students.