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Friday, September 14, 2007
State Budget Woes
More evidence that state budgets are facing new pressures, and that budget cuts have consequences, from David Sirota:
Thanks to budget cuts, Colorado's DMV is now totally understaffed.
In 2003, the agency was forced to shut down 25 facilities. Those that remain are chronically overburdened. As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, lines "are so long that people report spending all day at a driver's license office."
But that is just where it starts.
The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute notes that the state now ranks 39th in highway spending per capita, and the libertarian Reason Foundation points out that Colorado has among the most poorly maintained roads in America. Not surprisingly, national traffic surveys say Denver has developed some of the nation's worst congestion, with drivers having to waste an average of 51 hours a year commuting.
And from the LA Times:
But the budget signed by the governor last month wipes out $10 million allotted to Los Angeles County this fiscal year for outreach efforts to help low-income families register their children for medical insurance.
The fate of another $10 million for the next fiscal year remains uncertain. The three-year program was initially projected to funnel about $70 million to 20 high-need counties, with about one-third going to Los Angeles.
These small-scale efforts were expected to help enroll 25,000 L.A. County children and teenagers in government healthcare programs each year. Of the 2 million uninsured people in the county, an estimated 200,000 are children, said Suzanne Bostwick, acting director of the Children's Health Outreach Initiative, part of the county Department of Public Health.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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