If you live in Louisiana your share of the state's debt is $1271, compared to $77 for people living in Wyoming. ( I know; its only $15 in Nebraska but who knows a Nebraska song?) Citizens in some states owe more and some in other states owe less per person, and even in Massachusets where the per capita debt is over $4,000 our indebtedness to the federal government is many times greater.
I read an editorial in the Shreveport Times that I can actually agree with, entitled State Barreling Toward the Cliff. Sate lawmakers began the session with a 24.2 billion proposal and ended with a 26.9 billion proposal, resulting in a 42 per cent increase in state expenditures since1996 They ignored a plan by Treasurer John Kennedy to reduce state employment and to monitor 16,000 consulting contracts that cost $7.5 billion per year.The writer could have added that hanging over us like a crushing weight is the huge unfunded retirement obligation.
Our legislature, individually and collectively, has failed us. It won't help much but I believe in giving them hell and letting them know they should all be replaced.
(By the way Times, where have you been while the Obama administration continues to spend us into massive deficits and debt?)
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