Obama Stimulus Amounts to Permanent State Budget Dependencies
We can debate whether or not Obama’s stimulus packages were a good thing, but there is one thing that seems 
increasingly undeniable: they’ve ignored the real issues facing states. Subsequently, state governments will probably be begging for more money to keep their constituents happy for the time being.
An article from CNNMoney.com entitled “More and More States on Budget Brink” had this to say:
At least 30 states raised taxes in their most recently completed fiscal year — which ended in most cases in mid-2009. Even more cut services. All told, states raised $117 billion to fill last year’s budget gaps, the Pew Center on the States estimates.
Yet despite all those new taxes and deep cutbacks, pressure on state finances continues to build. Economists warn that without a new round of federal stimulus spending, states could face another round of layoffs that could kneecap an already shaky economic recovery.
I feel compelled to point out, as I normally do in this situation, that the article underscores the effort to downplay the end of the recession by saying that we are in an “economic recovery.” Be that as it may, it’s become clear that people are expecting the Federal Reserve to get the printing presses running, rather than making the necessary cuts to government programs to balance the budget.
Because states have to balance their budgets rather than just allow borrowing go unchecked, they are facing the reality that government services can’t continue to expand every year. It’s great. So long as they don’t raise taxes that is, something that many of them aren’t willing to do.
It was easy for Obama and the Democrats to come in with the federal credit card and pay a few bills for the state governments; it made many state legislatures and governors happy. It made sense to the masses who feared the so called “depression”. Instead of planning and making tough choices, state governments could just push their problems to next year. Way to go, Obama!