California, the eighth largest economy in the world, is broke.
"People are going to be hurt starting today," said Hallye Jordan, speaking on behalf of the state Controller. "There's no money."
Since state legislators failed to meet an end of January deadline on an agreement to make up for California's $40 billion budget gap, residents won't be getting their state tax rebates, scholarships to Cal Grant college will go unpaid, vendors invoices will remain uncollected and county social services will cease.
At least, temporarily. Services and payments will resume once state legislators come to an agreement on the budget.
"This time, there are real-world consequences," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the California Department of Finance, in a report by KCRA in Sacramento. "Because we have not been able to get to a budget agreement, payments aren't going to be made."
"This is an issue of fairness," said Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, in the KCRA report. "It hurts hardworking families the most. Refunds, in fact, will stimulate the economy, and taxpayers need their money."
"Included are $515 million in payments to the state's vendors and $280 million to help people with developmental disabilities. Other public assistance agencies will be left waiting for hundreds of millions of dollars," reports CNN. "Other public assistance agencies will be left waiting for hundreds of millions of dollars."
"I see the will during the negotiations even though these are very, very tough things that we talk about, where we go into areas that we have never, ever dreamt of going into and trying to solve," said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "So you will be very surprised when the whole thing is done. We're still not there yet. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done but we are moving slowly forward with this process."
Claiming state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.
H-1028.1
____________ _________ _________ _________ ______
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4009 ____________ _________ _________ _________ ______
State of Washington 61st Legislature 2009 Regular Session By Representatives Shea, Klippert, Condotta, Kretz, Anderson, McCune, and Kristiansen
Read first time 01/30/09. Referred to Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs.
1 TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND 2 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF 3 REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 4 UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE 5 SENATE AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH STATE'S 6 LEGISLATURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 7 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of 8 the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully 9 represent and petition as follows: 10 WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United 11 States specifically provides that, "The powers not delegated to the 12 United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 13 are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. "; and 14 WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal 15 power as being those powers specifically granted to it by the 16 Constitution of the United States and no more; and 17 WHEREAS, Federalism is the constitutional division of powers 18 between the national and state governments and is widely regarded as 19 one of America's most valuable contributions to political science; and p. 1 HJM 4009 1 WHEREAS, James Madison, "the father of the Constitution, " said, 2 "The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined.
3 Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and 4 indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external 5 objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The 6 powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects 7 which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, 8 and properties of the people. "; and 9 WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are not 10 "subordinate" to the national government, but rather the two are 11 "coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. The one is 12 the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government. "; 13 and 14 WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton expressed his hope that "the people 15 will always take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium 16 between the general and the state governments. " He believed that "this 17 balance between the national and state governments forms a double 18 security to the people. If one [government] encroaches on their 19 rights, they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed, 20 they will both be prevented from overpassing their constitutional 21 limits by [the] certain rivalship which will ever subsist between 22 them. "; and 23 WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means 24 that the federal government was created by the states specifically to 25 be limited in its powers relative to those of the various states; and 26 WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as 27 agents of the federal government; and 28 WHEREAS, Many federal mandates are directly in violation of the 29 Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and 30 WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v.
31 United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply 32 commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and 33 WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations and 34 some now being considered by the present administration and from 35 Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States; 36 NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully resolve: 37 (1) That the State of Washington hereby claims sovereignty under HJM 4009 p. 2 1 the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all 2 powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government 3 by the Constitution of the United States; and 4 (2) That this serve as a Notice and Demand to the federal 5 government to maintain the balance of powers where the Constitution of 6 the United States established it and to cease and desist, effective 7 immediately, any and all mandates that are beyond the scope of its 8 constitutionally delegated powers.
9 BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately 10 transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United 11 States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the 12 House of Representatives, the President of the Senate and the Speaker 13 of the House of Representatives of each state's legislature of the 14 United States of America, and each member of Congress from the State of 15 Washington.
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