reply to post by Stormdancer777
States go 'broke' because they have idiot forecasters. The state of California spent more money then what they had, thinking that they would be able
to pay everything off during the year. The problem is that you can't keep placing a percentage increase in a budget, if there isn't any money.
Apparently, politicians can't seem to grasp this. Budgets are very hard to decrease because politicians want to keep the pork. I can only imagine how
much better off California would be, if they didn't spend money on ridiculous programs and projects.
Let me give you an example of forecasters in government sectors. I know for a fact that this type of example isn't limited to my own experiences. I
work for one of the biggest state run university systems in the country. A year before the Sept/Oct 2008 crash, I had told them that they need to
reduce their budgets substantially in order to survive for the economic slowdown which will begin in Fall 2007 and will only be worse in the
following years. Not only did they not listen to me, they laughed it off, saying that I was 'too young and naive.' As you can tell, they increased
the budget after my warning. As of today, the university is told by the state to make $80 million in cuts before Fall, and more is to come in 2010.
The problem as to why states/government fail, is because those at the top, believe they are the smartest people in the room, when they have no idea
what's going on around them in the real world.