NYS: $36 million by the end of December

With a $130 billion dollar state budget annually, $36 million is the rough equivalent of “on our last dime.”

It’s the fly buzzing out of the empty wallet, the wooden nickel, the last thing between us and the poorhouse.

It’s also what will be left at the end of December. In simple terms, the collective “we” are broke.

The legislature has declined to act on Governor David Paterson’s austerity measures — with some lawmakers mocking him as “macho man.”

But for the North Country, the consequences of doing nothing are pretty dire.

This from the New York Times:

If New York does in fact run out of cash, it will have to delay paying some of its biggest bills.

Chief among the bills the state will face in December are $1.6 billion in aid the state is supposed to pay school districts, $2.5 billion in property tax relief to individual homeowners, and $500 million in general aid meant to go to local governments.

“If you put any of that off, at some point people are not getting the money they are expecting,” said the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, a Democrat. “That could affect local governments, school districts, nonprofits, hospitals.”

It will be painful watching all those folks try to divvy up $36 million. Are California-style I.O.U.s in our future?

Read the full article here.