Here is the 1/29/08 PR:
Edwards Calls On Congress To Help States Manage State Budget Deficits – Including Up To $375 Million For Missouri’s Looming Budget Crisis
Jan 29, 2008 2:26 PM
Bush plan omits critical state aid from so-called “stimulus” package
Jefferson City, Missouri – During an event in Jefferson City today, Senator John Edwards called on Congress to fix George Bush’s flawed economic stimulus plan to include Edwards’ proposal for federal financial assistance to states – including up to $375 million to help solve Missouri’s looming budget deficit. Missouri is currently projecting a budget deficit in 2010 and beyond.
“States like Missouri need immediate help – or we could see devastating cuts to education, health care and other basic services, along with increases in property taxes,” Edwards said. “Providing this assistance to states will not only protect our schools and our most vulnerable citizens, but represents an important and critical step to avoid a recession.”
On December 22 – long before Congress, the President, or any other candidate – John Edwards warned about the prospect of a looming recession and proposed an economic stimulus plan that includes extended unemployment benefits, investments in the renewable energy industry to create jobs within 90 days, a Home Rescue Fund to help families avoid foreclosure, and immediate federal financial assistance to states.
Today, Edwards emphasized the need to increase the federal contribution to Medicaid and provide additional aid to states, helping them avoid cuts to education, health care and other basic services and avoid increases in property and other taxes that disproportionately impact working families and seniors on fixed incomes. Under Edwards’ plan, Missouri would receive up to $375 million in direct aid to help avert those cuts and stimulate the state’s economy.
With Congress considering the Bush stimulus plan this week, Edwards called on members of Congress to act quickly to provide this important relief to states.
Federal assistance to the states provides more “bang for the buck” than almost any other form of short-term economic stimulus. It provides five times more economic benefits than business tax breaks, according to a study by Mark Zandi of Economy.com. Nobel Prize-winning economists reached a similar conclusion in a recent New York Times op-ed essay emphasizing extending unemployment insurance benefits and direct aid to states and localities.
If the idea is to get more money to the states, then a better idea could be to cede some revenue-collecting powers to them..say a state-managed fund where they pool and divide a slice of customs revenues collected within their borders.
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p>More federal aid to states is really an expansion of federal government power. One of the hallmarks of Canadian federalism is that the central government started giving “aid” to provinces decades ago in provincial fields. Now, Ottawa basically drives the agenda by setting increasingly onerous conditions on that “aid”. I don’t like the idea of each state being subject to the whims in Washington in competences that are constitutionally and historically state prerogative.
…we are a state who pays way more than comes back in so-called state aid. There really is a form of “state aid” rather like the so-called “local aid” the legislature sends back to cities and towns. As if it was charity, not the true “return of capital” it is.
We could save the vig if it didn’t need to make the round trip.
I’m just saying that the problem exists, and there’s no need to exacerbate it. This spending power is undermining federalism, and I don’t see what more of a bad thing is a good idea.
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p>I”d like to hear a candidate talk about new revenue streams from states that are currently in federal competence, not just a promise to give federal mandarins a bigger voice in running each state thanks to bigger block grants.
have additional money going for Medicaid and education. So in a way more money is going to the states under both plans, but not in the way that Edwards proposed, plus Edwards includes additional Medicaid and education as well.