State budgets in crisis as war looms
By Sharon Black
Baltimore
If the recent elections were not an utter sham, there would
have been an honest and open debate about the devastating
genocidal war about to be launched against Iraq and the growing
layoffs of U.S. workers as capitalist recession continues.
The crisis of state budgets and what it means for
communities and workers would have also been at the top of the
list of issues to consider.
Forty-five states have already begun to feel the impact of
budget deficits. Many analysts say that the past and coming
year are the worst in history. The $40 billion shortage in
state budgets this year is expected to rise to $50 billion next
year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities.
These are rather dry statistics. What they will mean in
human terms is that tens of thousands of workers who are
already paid too little and worked too hard will lose their
jobs. Others will lose pensions and health benefits.
Communities will feel the pain of cuts to already-too-meager
programs. Health care, education, housing, drug rehabilitation
and food programs will all be on the chopping block.
The planned Pentagon war against Iraq could pay for the
state budget crisis. Conservative estimates from the Wall
Street Journal have placed the cost of the war at $200
billion.
This does not include the cost of any kind of prolonged
military occupation. Yale economist William Nordhaus estimates
that the total cost of the Iraq war could climb as high as $1.9
trillion if all factors are included in the calculations. Not a
penny will come from the pockets of the oil companies.
Where are the headlines about this, or about the
consequences to the vast majority of workers whose programs
such as Social Security and Medicare will surely be looted?
The Pentagon budget--which will top $500 billion in the year
2007 if trends continue--makes these sums look paltry. This is
a form of robbery. It is a transfer of wealth from the working
class to maintain an imperialist empire on behalf of the banks,
oil companies and big business.
There is a direct link between the state budget cuts and
misery here at home and the imperialist war.
Union, community and political leaders will be joining other
anti-war activists in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18 for a
grassroots peace congress to demand money for jobs, health
care, housing and education, not for military aggression
against Iraq.
'Fight back!'
On Nov. 21, several hundred state workers from AFSCME
Council 92 joined with members of the Coalition to Overturn the
Budget Cuts and Alliance to Invest in Maryland to pack a state
legislative hearing and testify against cuts to services, jobs
and benefits.
Maryland's budget deficit is $1.8 billion. The state's share
of the cost of the Iraq war would be more than double its
deficit.
Gov. Parris Glendenning has announced a plan to balance an
immediate shortage of $600 million. He is proposing 4.9-percent
cuts to most services, wages and health-care plans of workers.
Programs such as mental health and drug rehabilitation would
see their budgets cut sharply along with many others.
These cuts are just the first wave. What will follow will be
more like a tidal wave when the entire deficit has to be
addressed in the early part of 2003.
Workers and community activists are preparing. In 1991, the
Coalition to Overturn the Budget Cuts and AFSCME began a
protracted fight, first by occupying the governor's office
where leaders of the group were arrested, and later culminating
in a march of 10,000 workers in Annapolis.
Activists are going back to the drawing board to make plans
for this year--not only to fight the budget cuts but also to
stop the war.
Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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