Anyway you can get rid of this clown would be a miracle.

Hasta LaVista Baby!!

Speaking of states being f_cked:

California Budget Deficit Balloons to $11.2 Billion

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said his state's finances have deteriorated so rapidly that a budget he signed just six weeks ago has already fallen into a $11.2 billion deficit and taxes must be raised.

Schwarzenegger ordered lawmakers into a special session to consider ways to close the gap. He proposed increasing the sales tax by 1.5 percentage points for three years as well as raising oil severance and alcoholic beverage taxes and motor vehicle fees. In all, taxes and fees would increase $4.7 billion while spending is cut $4.5 billion.

``We have a dramatic situation here and it will take dramatic solutions to solve it,'' Schwarzenegger, a 61-year-old Republican, told reporters in Sacramento. ``We must stop the bleeding.''

California has been hard hit by the housing-market rout and the worst financial crisis on Wall Street since the Great Depression. The state leads the nation in foreclosures and its unemployment rate reached 7.7 percent last month, the fourth highest in the country. Double-digit declines in stock markets have sapped tax revenue from income and capital gains.

Schwarzenegger said this shortfall differs from those in years past, when he resisted tax increases to solve what he said were problems caused by overspending. ``It is now a revenue problem, rather than a spending problem,'' he said.

The Standard & Poor's 500, down 39 percent in 2008, slumped 19 percent in October alone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 35 percent this year. The declines have erased more than $9.5 trillion from the value of stocks worldwide.

Proposed Cuts

Schwarzenegger's proposal also would expand sales and use taxes to include appliance and furniture repair, vehicle repairs, golf greens' fees, amusement park admissions, sporting event tickets and veterinarian services.

Statewide sales taxes would increase to 8.75 percent from 7.25 for three years. The proposal would add a 9.9 percent per barrel severance tax on oil drilled in this state. The proposal would also add 5 cents for every alcoholic mixed-drink, beer and glass of wine sold in the state.

He warned that if lawmakers don't take action soon, the state would run out of money in February and might be unable to pay some bills, including payroll.

The budget gap has grown from $3 billion the state estimated when it sold $5 billion of short-term notes Oct. 16. That deficit figure was based on tax revenue projections through September and didn't anticipate projected shortfalls in October.

Corzine's a big bust - an outsider that turned into a typical Jersey politico. Go call and e-mail your girlfriend Mr. Gov., you're better at that than reviving Jersey's economy. Corzine doesn't want to drill off of Jersey's coast, doesn't encourage wind power off of the coast, doesn't want to lure any big business to Jersey but wants to the citizen/taxpayer to keep footing the ever-increasing bill.

1. No more GS guys, please

2. He should stay at Gov. and not leave since this is a sensitive time financially in NJ and beyond. A transition within would be a set back. Finish the job and then think about DC some time later. What's the deal with that lady friend of his anyway, the one that heads up some union ?

3. No more GS guys, thank you.

Corzine should stay here and fix NJ. He has not a great job here and I doubt he would do a great job in DC

Yes, promote him out our hair so someone more qualified can face off against Chris Christie next year.

Quote:

This is not the guy you would want watching the money...what a joke...

The state is in shambles financially and he doesn't have a clue as to how this can be resolved.....

No way !

CK

His answer to all problems will be very simple:

Put toll booths every 500 feet on every interstate.

I would love him to leave and take another position. But treasury secretary. (shutter) He is slowly killing NJ. Maybe he can be appointed Secretary of Urinal Cakes.

NEXT TREASURY SECRETARY?
Gov: 'I love the job I have'

Thursday, November 06, 2008
By JOSH MARGOLIN
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Even as he says he wants to stick with the job he has, Gov. Jon Corzine, of Hoboken, has some specific ideas about what the next secretary of the Treasury will have to do.

"You have to go to work on the ground, you have to work bottom-up on the housing crisis," Corzine said last night.

"That's just one piece. You also have to have a stimulus package that puts money into creating jobs - it almost mirrors the kind of thing I've tried to propose on a smaller scale in the state" Corzine said. "And potentially additional steps to put money into consumers' pockets. And then this whole area of energy and the greening of America has a lot of job stimulus in it."

Corzine yesterday was downplaying a Star-Ledger report that he is being vetted for the Cabinet post in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama. The Democratic governor was a key economic advisor and surrogate during Obama's campaign.

During a TV appearance yesterday morning he said he was "not aware of any vetting" and that "I love the job I have."

Last night, in an interview after a speech to a teachers union convention in Atlantic City, Corzine stood by what he said earlier: "It happens to be the honest answer."

After talking about the job ahead for whoever does become Treasury secretary, Corzine said: "There are a lot of people who can do this job very well, Paul Volcker being the person that I think brings the greatest scope and breadth. There are other people too." Volcker is a former Federal Reserve chairman.

Corzine said he will continue to advise the president-elect through his role as economic development chairman of the National Governors Association and that he plans to be one of a handful of Democratic governors to visit with Obama or senior transition officials next week as part of a delegation from the Democratic Governors Association.

Another New Jersey politician who may benefit under Obama is U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, also of Hoboken.

Menendez will move up in seniority on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when two of its more senior members - Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden - give up their committee assignments.