At Least We Are Not California!

Michigan has been taking it on the chin for several years and there have been few reasons to puff out our chests lately. If you want bad press we have it.

What major city in the country has had a longer run of embarrassing corruption than Detroit? What state has suffered more from the recent economic downturn? What state are more people fleeing than any other state in this great country? I don't care who you are or where you are from, our state can top yours for ineptitude and suffering.

Don't like your unemployment rate Elkhart? Ha! I give you Baraga and Oscoda Counties!

Don't like the shape of your school systems Arkansas and Mississippi? Ha! I give you Detroit where not too long ago only one quarter of enrolled students ever graduated!

Don't like your shuttered factories Tennessee? Ha! Again, I give you the Motor City, but also can throw in Pontiac, Saginaw and Flint!

You think your budget is in bad shape California? Ha! I give you... I give you...
Hmmm. Maybe we don't have it quite as bad as California.

California, thank you, thank you, thank you! Finally, the People's Republic of Michigan has another state it can openly taunt for fiscal ineptitude.

First, I'm sure that everyone is aware of those wonderful little IOUs that California has decided will suffice, at least in the near term, in the place of hard currency as it attempts to kick its financial obligation can farther down the road. Well, it seems that the powers that be in California, even though they are willing to issue the IOUs to businesses to whom they owe money, will not accept the same IOUs back to pay off the sales taxes it levees against the companies for sales it has yet to pay for.

Here is how it works. A business does work or provides a product to the state of California. California cannot pay for the service or product but instead issues an IOU. The state charges the company for sales tax on a sale it has not paid for, and instead demands cash in return. I think the Sopranos would be proud.

Now there is this little fiasco brewing as myriad lawyers are being retained by business clients to sue the state of California for reducing program dollars that were promised to them in the budget process. Oh, and they are winning too, with suits over the past few months adding more than a billion dollars to the state's already mind boggling deficit.

So, hats off to California. You suck worse than we do.

h/ts to QandO and Protein Wisdom