Tuesday, February 3, 2009

ARE THE STATES REALLY BROKE OR HIDING ASSETS?

But, are the states really broke?
At least ten years ago, a man named Walter Burien began exposing something called a CAFR: Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Walter managed to get on a SF radio show hosted by my friend, Geoff Metcalf. It was a real eye opener. Try as we all did, not one newspaper in the State of California would expose the truth of how the taxpayers were being fleeced. Nor would 99% of the radio stations statewide. I guess they all love being flogged every April 15th to reward the thieves in the state house.
I've written about this issue before and perhaps now, with the states crying poor, the citizens of the 50 states will do what I did years ago: I went to the Comptroller's Office in downtown Sacramento and got a copy of the CAFR. Oh, they didn't want to give it to me, but I whipped out my press credentials and after some muss and fuss, I obtained a copy. I am not an accountant so a lot of that tome was foreign to me. However, thanks to Walter and Gerald Klatt, even someone like me can understand this complicated shell game:

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