Operating Budget | InvestmentWatch

SENATOR MULLS CRACKDOWN ON CRUISE SHIPS

Taxpayers footed the bill after a sewage-filled cruise needed to be rescued. Sen. Rockefeller thinks that’s not fair.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller thinks there’s something gross about Carnival Cruises.

But it’s not, in the senator’s words, the “squalid feces and trash and junk and stuff sloshing all over” the Carnival Triumph a few months ago. It’s this: American taxpayers—and not the cruise line—will have to pick up the tab for the U.S. Coast Guard coming [...]

Post Office Prepares for Second Default in Two Months

The U.S. Postal Service will default this week on a $5.6 billion congressionally mandated obligation to pre-fund retiree health benefits, marking the second time in two months the cash-strapped agency has done this.

The Postal Service last month failed to pay $5.5 billion for its fiscal 2011 prepayment obligation, which originally was due in September 2011 but was deferred by Congress until Aug. 1. That was the first time it ever defaulted on [...]

NOW Mammoth Lakes files for bankruptcy!

The High Sierra town of Mammoth Lakes said Monday that it filed for bankruptcy because it cannot afford to pay a $43-million breach-of-contract judgment against it brought by a developer.

In a prepared statement, Mammoth Lakes officials said “bankruptcy, unfortunately, is the only option left” for the town, whose largest creditor, Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition, had won a state court order requiring full payment by June 30, 2012.

Facing a judgment nearly [...]

Spain Forced To Pay 5% For Short Term Debt, Crisis Leading To Crop Theft, EU Rules Could Push Up Cost Of Retirement

by Les Pierce, CM

Spain forced to pay more than 5 pct interest on short term debt, highlighting investor fears
Banks’ borrowing at ECB rises as Spain stress grows
Soaring UC pension costs raise pressure for more cuts, tuition hikes
Gold climbs to record highs at Rs. 30,750 on seasonal demand (India)
Spain pharma sounds alarm on regional debt threat
Crisis has barely begun-GLG hedge fund manager Baz
French President: EU, U.S. to Discuss Tools for Fighting [...]

Facing $285 million shortfall, DOT looking to borrow (Massachusetts)

Boston —

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s budget is about $1 billion per year, but state officials say they expect to collect only about $715 million in operating budget revenues from tolls, rents, fees and state appropriations this year.

Davey aides confirmed to the News Service that the department will have to borrow money to close the gap, which totals about $285 million, although they hope revenue from advertising and real estate [...]

Bill would give loose change left at airports ($409,085 in 2010) to USO not TSA

From USA Today:

The Transportation Security Administration says it strives to return the money. But since 2005, Congress has let it keep the money for its operating budget.

In 2010, the TSA‘s most recent count, it amounted to $409,085. Passengers at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport left the most loose change, $46,918.06, with Los Angeles International Airportpassengers leaving $19,110.83 and $16,523.83 by those at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson.

Rand Paul returns $500k to treasury from congressional office budget

By SCOTT WONG | Politico

1/12/12 1:50 PM EST

Freshman Sen. Rand Paul is making good on his promise to cut federal spending. The Kentucky Republican and tea-party favorite said Thursday he’s returning $500,000 to the U.S. Treasury – money from his operating budget that his office never spent.

The half million dollars represents about 16 percent of Paul’s annual budget, and he contends no senator has returned as much to taxpayers.

“I ran to stop the reckless spending. And [...]

GOP goes after UN funding

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, meets with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Washington in March 2009. (UN Photo by Eskinder Debebe)

(CNSNews.com) – A U.S. House committee Thursday approved a bill linking U.S. contributions to the United Nations to significant financial and other reforms, one day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned she would recommend [...]

UN salaries hiked ‘dramatically’ – Bloomberg

The Obama administration told the United Nations that too few of its 10,307 workers are being cut and average salaries, currently $119,000 a year, have risen “dramatically.”

The U.S. ambassador for UN management and reform, Joseph M. Torsella, said today that the proposed $5.2 billion UN budget for the next two years would scrap only 44 jobs, a 0.4 percent reduction. After an “onslaught” of add-ons, the 2012-13 budget would rise [...]

Republicans to Unveil Bill to Force Major Changes at UN

House Republicans are planning to introduce today legislation that seeks to force major changes at the United Nations, using as leverage the U.S.’s 22 percent contribution to the world body’s operating budget.

The bill by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would require the UN to adopt a voluntary budget model in which countries selectively fund UN agencies rather than according to a set formula. It [...]

COURT CUTBACKS IN CA: DIVORCE NOW TAKES TWO YEARS!

By: Ari Burack, sfexaminer.com

Buried: The Superior Court’s Meredith Grier goes through paperwork from open cases. The court will have a larger backlog thanks to cuts in state funding. (Examiner file photo)
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/07/divorce-cases-another-casualty-court-budget-cuts-san-francisco#ixzz1VWkrB7Su

It takes at least six months to get a divorce in San Francisco, and now unhappy couples can add at [...]

STATE STILL COLLECTING TAX FOR CONFEDERATE VETS

by The Associated Press

The last of the more than 60,000 Confederate veterans who came home to Alabama after the Civil War died generations ago, yet residents are still paying a tax that supported the neediest among them.

Despite fire-and-brimstone opposition to taxes among many in a state that still has “Heart of Dixie” on its license plates, officials never stopped collecting a property tax that [...]

NM-Richardson’s Railroad Runs deeply into the Red

New Mexico’s Rail Runner Express could be on track for a fiscal train wreck.

… the need to address a projected $1.2 million shortfall in the train’s operating budget for the fiscal year that began Friday, was behind the controversial decision to discontinue weekend service.

Los Ranchos Mayor Larry Abraham, vice chairman of the railroad’s governing board, said the move was a wake-up call about a looming [...]

Afghanistan Finance Minister says he’s running out of patience with the IMF as he says their banks need a bailout

As if they collapse people could lose any money they have saved there and the government won’t be able to pay wages to government employees:

The Afghan finance minister has said he is “running out of patience” with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after it rejected a plan to deal with the troubled lender Kabul Bank.

Kabul Bank nearly collapsed last year after it emerged it had [...]

Ratings Downgrades Loom for Cash-Strapped States

Cash-strapped US states and cities face the prospect of downgrades after Fitch Ratings changed the way it analyses their burgeoning pension bills.

In a report published on Thursday, Fitch warns the new approach could lead to â€œlimited negative rating actionâ€, particularly for local governments with big wage bills. The changes to the way it assesses pension liabilities come amid growing concern over the scale of municipal debt [...]

If this economy were growing any slower it would be contracting…oh wait…it is.

1) CMBS delinquencies accelerate toward 9% in August: Trepp

“After two months of moderated growth in delinquent loans backing commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), the delinquency rate in August increased 21 basis points to 8.92%, according to the analytics firm Trepp.

It’s an increase from the 8.71% measured in July and another new record. The August delinquency rate is more than double the 4.03% rate a year [...]

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