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Funny you should say that since North Dakota is the second biggest leech in this country. You guys get $2.03 for every dollar you send. (2nd highest in the nat

by vaksel 16y ago

Funny you should say that since North Dakota is the second biggest leech in this country. You guys get $2.03 for every dollar you send. (2nd highest in the nation after DC) California could balance it's budgets too, if it got double what it paid in federal taxes every year.

protomyth 16y ago
Your source? If you count defense spending (CA didn't want the ICBM silos), 2 air force bases, and interstate highway, yeah. We are on the border, have a low population, and are a truck route (I94 and Hwy2). Having 600,000 people will skew a lot of stats. Counting the reservations in that number might be a little deceptive. Also, do we count the ongoing flooding? If the gov would clear an outlet or just let us move a couple of towns, we could probably cut the bill pretty nicely.
- dkl 16y ago
  http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html shows it to not be #2 but close to the top. And I think the point is still valid that CA could balance their budget if we had that nice ratio.
  - protomyth 16y ago
    That source doesn't have figures after 2005 and doesn't break it down by area. The skew is the population figure versus infrastructure and defense. I would imagine that the continued flooding will change the figure also. California needs to get ahold of its pensions, no one can fix that but themselves.
    - dkl 16y ago
      I agree about the pensions. 100%. My point was about the comparison between ND and CA.
      - protomyth 16y ago
        My point is the comparison based on this one stat is pretty invalid due to population differences and basic moneys allocated to infrastructure and military by the federal government (I also bet they count the 4 reservations in the ND number which adds to the skew).
  - Semiapies 16y ago
    Federal money spent within a state (especially military) doesn't usually interact with the State budget. It's like saying you just can't be in debt - your employer is making a profit. That's what just gets me about people exhorting everyone to vote when even such a supposedly well-informed group as HN has only the vaguest idea of how this country actually works.

by vaksel 16y ago

protomyth 16y ago

Your source? If you count defense spending (CA didn't want the ICBM silos), 2 air force bases, and interstate highway, yeah. We are on the border, have a low population, and are a truck route (I94 and Hwy2). Having 600,000 people will skew a lot of stats. Counting the reservations in that number might be a little deceptive. Also, do we count the ongoing flooding? If the gov would clear an outlet or just let us move a couple of towns, we could probably cut the bill pretty nicely.

dkl 16y ago
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html shows it to not be #2 but close to the top. And I think the point is still valid that CA could balance their budget if we had that nice ratio.
- protomyth 16y ago
  That source doesn't have figures after 2005 and doesn't break it down by area. The skew is the population figure versus infrastructure and defense. I would imagine that the continued flooding will change the figure also. California needs to get ahold of its pensions, no one can fix that but themselves.
  - dkl 16y ago
    I agree about the pensions. 100%. My point was about the comparison between ND and CA.
    - protomyth 16y ago
      My point is the comparison based on this one stat is pretty invalid due to population differences and basic moneys allocated to infrastructure and military by the federal government (I also bet they count the 4 reservations in the ND number which adds to the skew).
- Semiapies 16y ago
  Federal money spent within a state (especially military) doesn't usually interact with the State budget. It's like saying you just can't be in debt - your employer is making a profit. That's what just gets me about people exhorting everyone to vote when even such a supposedly well-informed group as HN has only the vaguest idea of how this country actually works.