Government Shut Down Day 3
I found this quote in the Strib yesterday, after the article noted that a shut down does not mean that expenditures suddenly disappear.
One of the biggest new expenditures: unemployment benefits for roughly 22,000 freshly laid-off state employees. In most cases, those workers are entitled to collect 50 percent of their pay while not working, according to a spokeswoman for AFSCME, the union that represents 18,000 state workers.
Those workers also will continue to receive health insurance at a cost of $4.7 million a week to the state. Altogether, the state could be shelling out $13 million a week to keep all those workers idle, based on the average salary of $38,000 earned by a state union member.
Additionally, the state is receiving no income from such diverse things as the state lottery and the car pool lanes. And just wait until the lawsuits begin . . .
So far I'm doing OK, at least during the day. Nights are rougher as I wake up at 4:00 and spend the next two hours worrying. How will we ever get caught up? How will we deal with all the additional problems the shut down creates? How will we do that while switching to the new accounting system? We're supposed to be working in both accounting systems until "hard close" in August, but what if we are not back by then?
Is this just a smaller version of what the federal government will soon be dealing with? What's wrong with these people? What's wrong with simply restoring the tax rates that were in effect before Pawlenty did "favors" for all his wealthy friends? How much money is "enough" money for them? What lies ahead for the rest of us? Chaos?
There's nothing I can personally do about any of this! Guess I'll feed the dogs, get dressed and take Argus down to Hidden Falls Park along the Mississippi. The Hmongs have taken over Como for their enormous Sports Festival, and there will be no parking for the rest of us, so we'll do our Sunday morning walk elsewhere.
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| No more dog shows for Pauli |
I found this quote in the Strib yesterday, after the article noted that a shut down does not mean that expenditures suddenly disappear.
One of the biggest new expenditures: unemployment benefits for roughly 22,000 freshly laid-off state employees. In most cases, those workers are entitled to collect 50 percent of their pay while not working, according to a spokeswoman for AFSCME, the union that represents 18,000 state workers.
Those workers also will continue to receive health insurance at a cost of $4.7 million a week to the state. Altogether, the state could be shelling out $13 million a week to keep all those workers idle, based on the average salary of $38,000 earned by a state union member.
Additionally, the state is receiving no income from such diverse things as the state lottery and the car pool lanes. And just wait until the lawsuits begin . . .
So far I'm doing OK, at least during the day. Nights are rougher as I wake up at 4:00 and spend the next two hours worrying. How will we ever get caught up? How will we deal with all the additional problems the shut down creates? How will we do that while switching to the new accounting system? We're supposed to be working in both accounting systems until "hard close" in August, but what if we are not back by then?
Is this just a smaller version of what the federal government will soon be dealing with? What's wrong with these people? What's wrong with simply restoring the tax rates that were in effect before Pawlenty did "favors" for all his wealthy friends? How much money is "enough" money for them? What lies ahead for the rest of us? Chaos?
There's nothing I can personally do about any of this! Guess I'll feed the dogs, get dressed and take Argus down to Hidden Falls Park along the Mississippi. The Hmongs have taken over Como for their enormous Sports Festival, and there will be no parking for the rest of us, so we'll do our Sunday morning walk elsewhere.
1 comment:
Why no more shows for Pauli????
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