Monthly Archives: September 2021

By RICK BRUNDRETT

Out of this fiscal years $32.5 billion state budget, more than a third of it nearly $12.3 billion is made up of other funds.

Other funds include such things as fees and fines, college tuition, lottery proceeds, state gasoline taxes, and part of the state sales tax earmarked for K-12 education. Many state agencies dont spend all of their other funds in a fiscal year, with some of them amassing huge year-end surpluses.

The state ended last fiscal year on June 30 with at least $5.6 billion in total other-fund surpluses, which covered 102 state agencies or divisions, plus two major state accounts, The Nerve found in a review of records provided by the S.C. Department of Administration under the state Freedom of Information Act.

To put the $5.6 billion in some context, it works out to be about $1,106 for every man, woman and child in South Carolina.

The overall windfall as of June 30 was $1.3 billion, or 31%, more than the total other-fund surplus at the end of the previous fiscal year, The Nerves review found. And those funds arent the only reserves that are available to state agencies for this fiscal year.

Last month, The Nerve reported that state agencies started this fiscal year with collective general-fund reserves of about $640 million on top of a more than $1 billion undesignated general-fund balance, according to an annual report by S.C. comptroller general Richard Eckstrom.

General funds are largely made up of individual and corporate income taxes, and state sales taxes. Together, general and other fund surpluses, including two constitutional rainy day reserve accounts, totaled nearly $8 billion at the start of this fiscal year, which represents almost a quarter of the entire fiscal 2021-22 state budget.

But lawmakers likely wont return any of the surplus to taxpayers. For now, they are considering how to allocate $2.5 billion in federal coronavirus-relief funding, according to other media reports.

The S.C. Department of Transportation had the largest other-fund surplus $1.35 billion among state agencies as of June 30, The Nerves review found. The state Department of Administrations records didnt specify whether that amount included the cash balance of a special fund created with the 2017 gas-tax-hike law, which raised the states gasoline tax by 12 cents per gallon over six years, and increased other vehicle taxes and fees.

As of June 30, the gas-tax-hike fund had a cash balance of $896.1 million a 50% increase compared to the end of fiscal 2020, as The Nerve revealed last month.

Following is a list of the 10 state agencies with the largest other-fund surpluses as of June 30, according to Department of Administration records:

Whether certain state agencies need large reserves is a matter of debate. The state House and Senate chambers, for example, started this fiscal year with other fund surpluses of $306,489 and $280,002, respectively, plus, as The Nerve reported last month, had general fund surpluses of $22.7 million and $3.4 million, respectively.

The Nerve earlier this year revealed that legislators designated tens of millions of surplus tax dollars in this fiscal years state budget for their pet projects. Lawmakers later overrode nearly all of Gov. Henry McMasters vetoes of the total $152.5 million in legislative earmarks.

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org. Follow him on Twitter @RickBrundrett. Follow The Nerve on Facebook and Twitter @thenervesc.

Nervestories are free to reprint and repost with permission by and credit to The Nerve.

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The $5 billion surplus officials don't talk about - The Nerve

Martin Fey| For The Bulletin

There is a prevailing view on the left that American school children have traditionally been fed a sanitized version of their countrys history, and that the deficiency needs to be corrected via immersion in Critical Race Theory. The problem with this approach is that it veers too far in the opposite direction, indoctrinating children with the notion that theirs is a nation founded by corrupt White men. With the legitimacy of the Founders disparaged, it becomes easier to tear down the legitimacy of the nation those men designed. That, of course, is the goal of the left.

Leftists worship government, believing its power will eventually provide our collective salvation. Karl Marx went to that belief and beyond, asserting that government would eventually fade away as the dictatorship of the proletariat cleansed the world of economic injustices and animosity between peoples. Conservatives, and some Republicans, cling to the Founders belief that salvation is achieved by the individual, not the collective, and that only free people can improve themselves and their societies.

The 2016 election began a realignment of the American political system, with big business and Wall Street now solidly arrayed behind the Democrat Party and working-class voters, traditionally the base of the Democrat Party, shifting rapidly right. The Democrats admixture of government stimulus spending and the intertwinement of the interests of a powerful central government and big business is the essence of the fascist economic model. With an added emphasis on central planning it amounts to communism lite.

The Democrat Partys allies are more ambitious. Black Lives Matter, with a zeal for defunding the police in favor of people patrols, and the Antifa arsonists, who like Hitlers Brown Shirts act as terror troops for leftist causes, are full-on Marxist cabals that believe they can achieve the ultimate paradise -- communist anarchy by whatever force and intimidation is necessary.

The Biden administrations $3.5 trillion plan to allegedly rebuild the nations infrastructure (leftists like to redefine words, and that one is the latest) is an unprecedented all-out roulette bet on government wisdom and efficacy. If the bet fails, the chips will be gone. Fearing retribution at the polls in 2022, Democrats are trying to cram as much congressional pork down Americas throat as they can before then. We can also expect an effort soon to entrench their threatened power by packing new members onto the US Supreme Court and adding D.C as a state.

Democrats lament the recent transformation of their Republican opposition from traditional fiscal conservatism to nationalist populism under Trump, mostly because they know traditional Republicans were getting increasingly easy to beat. American voters will no longer support a party that cares more about free enterprise than people. To their credit, Republicans recognized their impending extinction and changed course with Trump. The party will not go back.

Now both parties express populist sentiments, but the nation is locked in an existential battle between those who believe America is a magnificent work in progress and those who believe it was irredeemably flawed by the existence of slavery until 1865. Christianity allows humanity a simple route to salvation from the original sin committed in the Garden of Eden, but the left makes no such allowance for the nation. Critical Race Theory, which is overt and covert in our schools today, is not intended to revise the history curriculum. It is intended to undermine the constitutional foundation and best traditions of the United States, so the nation will crumble and be rebuilt in the lefts own image.

History must be taught in context. Speaking from my public school and university experience, American history was never sanitized in Connecticut, although the emphasis was positive. We learned that Washington and Jefferson, despite their avowed belief that all men are created equal, owned and profited from large numbers of black slaves, and that references to slavery contaminated the original Constitution. We learned that Lincoln considered the idea of the federal government buying slaves from plantation owners and shipping them to Africa to eliminate the race issue. We dwelled long on how slavery was the real cause of the Civil War, and how the Democrat Party retaliated for the Confederacys defeat by instituting almost a century of Jim Crow laws. We read about the failure of the free market at the onset of the Great Depression and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. We learned about the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the hard-won victories of the Civil Rights Movement.

But unlike the absolutes taught in Critical Race Theory, that history was taught in context nations around the globe in the 18th and early 19th centuries engaged in slavery and, just as bad, colonialism. Few gave their average citizens true liberty. By lifting so many from serfdom and slavery to freedom, Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln were visionaries in their times, what Democrats would call progressives today. They should be celebrated for their vision, and forgiven flaws that were morally acceptable by the standards of the times.

Martin Fey is a member of the Quiet Corner Tea Party Patriots.

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View from the right: Critical Race Theory seeks to tear down legitimacy of the nation - Norwich Bulletin

The term sustainability has been used with different connotations under different circumstances in multilateral policy discussions. The fiscal sustainability of state governments is different from that of the central government, due to the differential allocation of powers in the Constitution of India. These legal restrictions leave subnational governments unable to adjust their primary fiscal balances. Yet, state governments, in order to maintain economic stability and achieve economic growth, can manipulate fiscal policy alone as the monetary policy is uniform for all states, in that it is centrally determined. As far as state government finances in India are concerned, subnational financial sustainability can be understood as the capacity to generate adequate resources to afford their expenses on a sustained basis. This involves two main dimensions: (i) fiscal sustainability, and (ii) debt sustainability. This article focuses on fiscal sustainability.

Fiscal sustainability analysis is an approach linked to intertemporal budget constraints, subject to the condition that current deficits need to be outweighed in the future by surplus (Quintanilla 2009). The borrowing operations of the government should not muddle the objectives of maintaining stability in the economy. In the case of the Indian economy, there is a paucity of resources necessary for development. Revenues, generated by way of taxes, are mostly used for the normal expenditure of the government, resulting in the governments heavy reliance on borrowed funds to finance development of the economy (Mallick 2005). If the cost or burden of borrowings is offset by the gains received, then the debt would be less burdensome. If the rise in public borrowings is accompanied by a simultaneous increase in productive capacity, investment, asset creation, and national income in the economy, then the debt will not hinder the stability of the economy. Thus, the income-generating effect of public debt makes the rising debt less troublesome (Bhatia 1994).

The actual point to be considered here then is whether the rate of growth of the economy is satisfactory or not. A lower growth rate along with higher rate of public debt is oppressive. The analysis of the net economic burden of public debt would depend on the extent to which the resources generated are used efficiently in order to enable the economy to achieve self-sustained growth. But due to inherent difficulties engaged in isolating the contribution of borrowings to economic growth and segregating the benefits, one can only analyse the purpose for which borrowed funds have been spent. Therefore, to assess the performance of public debt, one of the important factors to be considered is the utilisation pattern of government funds.

In light of the above discussion, this article shall attempt to analyse the pattern of state government finances and borrowed funds.

Database and Methodology

The data for this research has been primarily collected from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bulletins and annual reports on State Government Finances: A Study of State Budgets. Seventeen major Indian states have been considered for the present analysis. These include Andhra Pradesh (ANP), Assam (ASM), Bihar (BHR), Gujarat (GUJ), Haryana (HAR), Himachal Pradesh (HMP), Jammu and Kashmir (JNK), Kerala (KRL), Karnataka (KTK), Madhya Pradesh (MDP), Maharashtra (MHR), Odisha (ODS), Punjab (PNB), Rajasthan (RAJ), Tamil Nadu (TND), Uttar Pradesh (UTP), and West Bengal (WSB).

The data analysis includes a study of the following variables for the states under study: revenue deficits, fiscal deficits, loans and advances by state governments (LASG), debt receipts of state governments (DRSG), internal debt, loans and advances from central government (LACG), ways and means advances (WMA) and overdraft, small savings and provident fund (SS&PF), reserve fund, deposits and advances, and contingency fund. TheDRSGfor individual states has been calculated from 198081 to 201415. The calculations have been made by following the revised coverage used by theRBI(from 200506 onwards) for the calculation of the total budgetary liabilities of state governments, which comprises of (i) public debt, including internal debt andLACG, (ii)WMAand overdraft, (iii) public account, includingSS&PF, reserve fund, and deposits and advances, and (iv) contingency fund. All of these four components have been added up to calculateDRSG.

The data and information pertaining to various components have been statistically analysed by using percentages, ratios, averages, standard deviation, andanalysis of variance (ANOVA). An assessment of the significance of differentials in the gross fiscal deficit, as a percentage of gross state domestic product, has been made through a two-wayANOVA. Six indexes of instability were estimated for the measurement of temporal fluctuations in the utilisation pattern of total debt receipts for each of the 17 states. These indices are outlined as below:

Index1,as proposed by Sethi (2010), is based on the coefficient of variation among moving averages (as first suggested by Mahendradev [1987]).

Index2, due to Ray (1983), is estimated as the standard deviation of natural log of the ratios of successive values.

Index2= Standard Deviation (ln {Xt+1/Xt})

whereXtis the value of the variable in the current time period.

Xt+1is the value in the subsequent year.

Index3,given by Coppock (1962), uses log-variance approach, by assuming the percentage change in the values at constant rate and thereby correcting the annual changes for this as:

Index3= Antilog [(Xlog)1/2]

heren= number of observations, andm= measure of constant percentage change.

Index4,due to Glezakos (1973), basically, is the exports instability index based on absolute difference between successive values and simple linear trend value, expressed as a percentage of the mean:

.

here^1is the slope of the linear trend.

Index5,due to Glezakos (1984), is also an exports instability index based on absolute difference between successive values adjusted for exponential trend value, expressed as a percentage of mean:

.

herer= rate of growth of the variable obtained from exponential trend as:Y^t= A(1+r)t

Index6is the mean of the export instability index. It was given by Xin and Liu (2008) as

The different methodology and formulation of the indexes of instability are not bound to provide a unique picture; therefore, an intercorrelation matrix has been used to establish compatibility among these indexes as:

In order to test the compatibility among the ranks assigned to the 17 states with respect to the extent of instability in the utilisation ratio, Kendalls Coefficient of Concordance was computed by following Seigel (1988), as

wherek= set of ranks, andn= number of components.

is the sum ofTjfor all sets of rankings.

Sis the corrected sum of squares of deviations from the mean ofRj(aggregated rank overksets).

That is,

In the case of tied observations,Tjwas computed as a correction factor.

heregj= number of group of ties injthset of ranks andti= number of tied ranks inithgroup of ties.

Results and Discussion

The utilisation pattern of domestic debt is an important aspect related to the management and burden of public debt and to the development of an economy. But it is difficult to measure the real burden entailed by the growth of debt. The outstanding liabilities on account of borrowings can be analysed through the purpose for which the borrowed funds have been used towards creation of productive assets. A careful analysis of the utilisation pattern of debt receipts throws light on an important issue, whether the increasing proportion of public debt is being used for productive uses (that is, on capital outlay and loans advanced) or for unproductive or consumption expenditure. However, in the budget documents of the government, expenditure on the basis of productivity is not classified. It is rather difficult to analyse how the debt receipts received at some point of time are used for what purpose at some other point of time. Yet, it can be analysed by comparing the expenditure and receipts (both on capital and revenue accounts) of the government, which indicates the fiscal management of the government.

The higher the proportion of government expenditure on consumption, current, and administrative expenditure, the lesser resources left for productive expenditure (that is, on social, economic, and some components of general services). A higher proportion of current expenditure in total government expenditure signifies inadequacy of the government to generate adequate resources. The decline in capital outlay as a percentage of capital receipts implies that there is a relative expansion of current expenditure, at the cost of capital outlay. Also, the decline in capital expenditure, as a proportion of net capital receipts, signifies that the capital receipts are being diverted towards current expenditure, which were otherwise required to be spent on capital formation in the economy. While not all current expenditure is unproductive in nature, a major share is allocated towards defence, subsidies, and interest payments on past debt. Further, a large portion of capital receipts comprises of debt capital receipts bearing interest charges, which is further used for the meeting of current expenditure, ultimately resulting in a higher interest burden on the economy. This implies that capital receipts, which otherwise would have been used for capital expenditure, are absorbed in current expenditure.

The total revenue earned by state governments has been persistently falling short of its total expenditure for the last three decades, as they have failed to cover up its revenue expenditure from revenue receipts (Bhargava 2011). State governments try to fill their budgetary gap from capital receipts and it is evident that the major source of capital receipts is borrowings. Capital disbursements are mainly financed through the mobilisation of public debt receipts. Further, they are financed through surplus from the revenue account, deposits and advances, reserve fund, contingency fund, and recovery ofLASG.

The effective utilisation of borrowed funds can be made clear on the basis of assets and liabilities of state governments. Liabilities are required to be adequately covered by assets. However, in the case of state governments, capital outlays were observed to be less than the liabilities. Nevertheless, the whole amount of liabilities not covered by assets cannot be considered unproductive, so long as large amounts of the borrowings are for productive and developmental purposes. Therefore, what matters is not the actual size of public debt but its management in order to achieve the objectives of economic development with stability. The government mainly raises funds for three basic reasons, namely capital outlay, loans advanced, and consumption expenditure. Capital outlay is that part of the expenditure, which is mainly developmental but may also be used for the acquisition of income-yielding assets. The capital outlay portion is further categorised as general services, economic services, and social services.

Loans advanced include all kinds of loans given by state governments, public sector enterprises, government servants, etc. These loans are utilised not only for the purpose of capital formation and asset creation but also to meet the consumption or current needs of state governments (Bhatia 1994). The loans given to public sector undertakings do not give good returns, due to their inefficiency or low productivity. Therefore, most part of the debt raised has been used unproductively. So these components have not resulted in any addition to income-yielding assets. Therefore, it does not lead to any increase in the productive potential of the economy.

The assets comprise of capital outlay and loans advanced. The excess of these two components over the total liabilities of the government implies that surplus on revenue account has been used for capital expenditure. But the excess of total liabilities over capital outlay and loans advanced implies that current expenditure of the government has been financed out of the borrowings, that is, the funds have been going into the consumption expenditure of the government. Capital expenditure either results in the creation of physical financial assets or in the reduction of liabilities, whereas capital receipts, which may be debt receipts or non-debt receipts, generally implies the creation of liability.

Table 1 depicts huge variations among states in the relative shares of loans and advances plus capital outlay in total debt receipts. Utilisation (LASG+ capital outlay), as a percentage of debt receipts, was found to be the highest for Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh respectively. For Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Himachal Pradesh, it lies between 21% and 50%. Utilisation is seen to be very less (that is, less than 20%) in Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Haryana. Further, the table reveals that Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal have shown continuous decline in the utilisation of debt receipts since 200001. Whereas Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan (also having utilisation ratio less than 20%) have shown fluctuating trends with respect to the same.

Differentials in Utilisation Pattern

Wide fluctuations have been observed to exist in the utilisation of borrowings among states and within the states, over a fairly long period of 35 years. In order to provide a comparative picture of states with regard to utilisation patterns, some basic computations have been done to examine the differentials in utilisation ratio among states as shown in Tables 2 and 3. On an average (over the years), the utilisation ratio is found to be minimum for West Bengal (31.60) and maximum for Jammu and Kashmir (134.57). However, the pattern of variability depicted by standard variation was maximum in Punjab (135.68) and minimum in Odisha (24.05). West Bengal, Kerala, and Punjab, which have a utilisation ratio of less than 20% for 201415, also have the lowest mean values among 17 states. For Punjab, the mean utilisation ratio is found to be 71.52, while the ratio is expectedly in the range of 8.95 and 134.1, associated with a confidence coefficient of 0.99. The same interval, for adjoining Haryana, ranges between 49.91 and 88.13, thus implying that position of Punjab has been relatively poor.

Table 3 reveals that the fiscal year 198283 witnessed the highest utilisation ratio in the entire 35 year-long time span, while the lowest was observed during 200304 for the states. Some improvement was seen in 200506, but it was too little and could not be sustained either, for since 201011, the mean utilisation ratio was found to be declining. The lowest levels of mean utilisation ratio have been found in the later years, starting from 200304. As basic computations of the utilisation ratio could not provide us with a unique picture, the indexes of instability have been worked out to gauge the fluctuations in utilisation ratio over time and to have a clear position of states with respect to the same.

Table 4 (p 34) exhibits the computations of various indexes of instability with regard to the utilisation ratio of states. As many as six indexes of instability were worked out. But due to the criteria of uniformity among indexes, only four indexes, namely Index2, Index3, Index4, and Index5, have been reported. The differences in the formulation of the indexes of instability were not bound to provide a unique picture. For instance, minimum instability was found in the case of Tamil Nadu as computed through Index2and Index3, in Uttar Pradesh through Index4,and Kerala as per Index5. As gauged through Index2, Index3, Index4, and Index5, the state with maximum instability was Punjab, followed by Assam and Maharashtra. The indexes could not provide us with a harmonious picture with regard to minimum instability in the utilisation pattern among states. Therefore, the nature and extent of association among different indexes have been gauged through the intercorrelation matrix.

Table 5 depicts the intercorrelation analysis performed on different values of indexes. The analysis of the table reveals a strong association between Index4and Index5(0.998), followed by Index2and Index3(0.996). Since the different indexes of instability failed to provide a concrete picture regarding the extent of instability in states with respect to utilisation pattern, we have performed ranking analysis for states on the basis of different indexes. In Table 4, rankings (given in parentheses) were assigned to different states for a given index. Then, in order to examine whether there existed any compatibility or agreement among different indexes on the basis of assigned ranks, Kendalls concordance analysis was performed on different ranks of indexes. The findings of the test provided Kendalls W coefficient (= 0.925). The testing of Kendalls coefficient turned out to be significant at 0.01% level, when tested through Chi square test. The computed value of X2at 16 degrees of freedom was 59.176, which was more than the critical value of X2at corresponding number of degrees of freedom. Significantly, Kendalls coefficient implies a high degree of concordance among the ranking of states regarding relative instability (with respect to utilisation pattern).

As evident from Table 4, on the basis of mean ranking (justified due to strong concordance therein), Punjab has witnessed high temporal fluctuations with regard to its utilisation ratio, whereas minimum instability was experienced by Uttar Pradesh. Thus, after having performed Kendalls concordance analysis, the states with minimum and maximum instability have been determined. Therefore, it is imperative to analyse the significance of the differentials existing in states, on account of the utilisation of borrowed funds. For the testing of differentials in mean utilisation ratio among 17 states, the two-wayANOVAapproach is used.

The ratios calculated in Table 2 were subjected to a two-wayANOVAapproach in order to examine the comparative performance related to the utilisation of borrowings of states. The results of the test are shown in Table 6, which reveal that significant differences exist among the 17 states in utilisation ratios over a period of 35 years. The value of theF-statistic (= 7.540) for time indicates the differentials among states in utilisation ratios at different points of time, whereas theF-statistic(= 6.926) for states signifies the differentials in the specific ratio among states for a period of 35 years. It is worth mentioning that over this period, states have shown a declining trend (Table 3), which may not be seen as a conducive sign.

The two-wayANOVAtechnique was duly coupled with Tuckeys post hoc comparisons in order to test the paired comparisons of states. Table 7 reveals a pairwise comparison among states witnessing significant mean differences in utilisation ratios. Out of 136 possible comparisons among 17 states, 24 paired comparisons turned out to be statistically significant.

As per the findings, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the highest mean utilisation ratio in comparison to the remaining 16 states of Andhra Pradesh (by 75.23%), Assam (by 78.67%), Bihar (by 73.62%), Gujarat (by 60.22%), Haryana (by 65.54%), Himachal Pradesh (58.33%), Kerala (by 97.87%), Karnataka (by 62.01%), Madhya Pradesh (by 55.71%), Maharashtra (by 41.13%), Odisha (by 78%), Punjab (by 63.04%), Rajasthan (by 84.22%), Tamil Nadu (by 71.16%), Uttar Pradesh (by 72.12%), and West Bengal by 102.96%). The maximum gap (of 102.96% with very large P value) in utilisation ratio was found between West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.

As per Table 7, the mean utilisation ratio was higher for Maharashtra than that of Kerala, Rajasthan, and West Bengal. Madhya Pradesh had a significantly higher mean utilisation than Kerala (by 42.15%) and West Bengal (by 47.24%). It is worth mentioning that West Bengal has a significantly lower utilisation ratio than as many as six states, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. This clearly indicates the relatively poor position of West Bengal on account of its deteriorating finances coupled with poor debt management. On the other hand, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a relatively better position, expectedly due to the status of special category state along with better management of debt servicing.

Policy Implications

This article aims at examining the pattern of utilisation of borrowings among 17 major Indian states during 198081 to 201415 by analysing broad indicators of the utilisation pattern. An attempt has also been made to examine the differentials in utilisation patterns among states during the same 35-year period by employing two-wayANOVAtechnique duly coupled with Tuckeys post hoc comparisons to establish paired comparisons among states. In order to gauge the extent of instability in the utilisation ratio for states, as many as four indexes were worked out. Due to different units of measurements in instability indexes, states were assigned ranks accordingly and an intercorrelation analysis was performed on indexes to squeeze out a unique picture regarding the agreement among indexes. The indexes were then subjected to Kendalls concordance testing to examine concordance among the rankings of states.

The analysis of indicators reveals that there has been a disproportionate rise in interest payments and current expenditure of the government, as indicated by high levels of interest payments to revenue expenditure and capital receipts, and high revenue deficits in relation to fiscal deficits. The finances of Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal, depict that a large proportion of capital receipts is absorbed in the revenue expenditure of these states, which implies poor and unproductive utilisation of debt receipts. Basic computations of mean and standard deviation reveal that West Bengal has witnessed the lowest mean utilisation ratio and Punjab has depicted a high degree of variability as indicated by standard deviation. The position of Punjab in respect to utilisation pattern of borrowings is observed to be poorer in comparison to its adjoining state, Haryana. Similarly, the utilisation ratio is observed to be less than 20% in Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Haryana. The lowest levels of mean utilisation ratio have been found in the later years starting from 200304.

As regards the results of differentials among states in respect of utilisation are concerned, a two-wayANOVAreveals that significant differences in mean utilisation ratio exist among 17 states over a period of 35 years and as many as 24 pairs of states display significant mean difference among 136 possible comparisons. As regards the major findings, West Bengal has displayed minimum utilisation ratio and Punjab has depicted highest instability among states as gauged through different indexes of instability.

The deteriorating fiscal health of states has affected their financial strength. The above analysis shows that state government finances need the generation of additional resources in order to maintain the sustainability of their finances. State-level fiscal reforms can play a significant role, if fiscal discipline is followed by the states. Strict adherence to policy reforms and effective implementation can make a way for the same. But the policy or programmes should take into consideration the comparative situation of states. The reforms or policies need to maintain balance and harmony in the present federal set-up. Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal, facing serious fiscal deterioration, need to strictly follow fiscal rules in order to come out of the crisis. There is an urgent need to create a political will on the part of state governments to provide efficient governance and concerted efforts to ensure fiscal sustainability.

References

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Bhargava, P K (2011):Aspects of State Finances in India,Jaipur: RBSA Publishers.

Coppock, J D (1962):International Economic Instability:The Experiences of World War II,New York: McGrawHill.

Glezakos, C (1973): Export Instability and Economic Growth: A Statistical Verification,Economic Development and Cultural Change,Vol 21, No 4, pp 67078.

(1984): Export Instability and Economic Growth: Reply,Economic Development and Cultural Change,Vol 32, No 3, April, pp 61523.

Quintanilla, J C (2009):Public Finance Sustainability in Subnational Governments, Publication No 12, United Kingdom: Debt Relief International Limited, ISBN: 978-1-903971-52-9.

Mahendradev, S (1987): Growth and Instability Foodgrains Production: An Interstate Analysis,Economic & Political Weekly,Vol 22, No 39, pp A82a92.

Mallick, H (2005): An Economic Analysis of Domestic Debt of the Central Government in India,unpublished PhD thesis,Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

Ray, S K (1983):Growth and Instability in Indian Agriculture,Delhi: Institute of Economic Growth.

RBI (2014):State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 201314, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai.

Seigel, S (1988):Non-Parametric Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Sen, T K (2012): Recent Developments in Kerala State Finances, CDS Working Papers No 449, Trivadrum: Centre for Institute of Development Studies,https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/3187.

Sethi, A S (2010): Some Further Aspects of Rates of Growth Computations,Journal of International Economics,Vol 2, pp 5770.

Xin, X and J Liu (2008): Geographic Concentration and Chinas Agricultural Eport Instability,World Economy,Vol 31, No 2, pp 27585.

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Utilisation of Government Borrowings in Major Indian States - Economic and Political Weekly

Editors note: This story is part of a collaboration between the Aspen Daily News and KDNK radio. For the audio story, visit tinyurl.com/KDNKSandWashRoundup.

Standing on a hillside in the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area, the breeze carries a thunderous boom from miles away, but there are no storm clouds in sight. Its the sound of about a hundred horses hoofing the ground as theyre loaded into trailers, 40 at a time.

The horses in the trailers are as wild as the sagebrush that grows in northwestern Colorado. They will be taken to a facility in Caon City, where the Bureau of Land Management will hold them until they can be deemed fit for sale, adoption or long-term holding.

Meg Fredrick, a photographer for the California-based wild horse and burro advocacy organization Return to Freedom, has spent the past seven years visiting the Sand Wash Basin and documenting the herds that roam the area. To see the horses that shes come to love throughout their lives loaded into trailers and shipped far away is like having a broken leg, she said. Over time, she and the other advocates have gotten used to the pain.

We are numbed, she said. The energy from this land is gone. We hate it when we hear the cattle trucks in the morning because we know theyre taking away our babies.

The BLM announced on Aug. 27 that an emergency gather was necessary in the Sand Wash Basin due to drought conditions. In the first nine days of September, 631 horses were gathered. In its environmental assessment from Aug. 17 which declared the situation an emergency the BLM said it intended to gather 733 horses total, out of the 896 it found living inside the basin in July. Only 728 of those were found to be residing inside the herd management area, or HMA, and another 100 were found just outside. According to the BLM, an appropriate management level for horses inside the Sand Wash HMA is 163 to 362 wild horses, and removing 733 horses would get the population total to 163.

The BLM announced that the Sand Wash gather had concluded Wednesday; however, the bureau announced the same day that it would begin gathering the wild horses outside the HMA. Also on Wednesday, the Sand Wash Advocacy Team, which assists the BLM with controlling herd populations within the HMA, identified 50 horses 25 mares and 25 studs to release back into the management area after treating the mares with fertility control, a common population management tool used to ensure that wild horse populations do not grow beyond the appropriate level. The horses were to be released on Saturday.

Advocates like Fredrick believe that the BLM should not allow livestock to graze on wild horse HMAs. In Sand Wash, four livestock grazing allotments overlap the HMA, allowing cows and sheep onto the land. The BLM allocates a certain amount of forage to livestock and wild horses, known as an animal unit month. One AUM is equivalent to one horses forage, one cow-calf pair or five sheep, and according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, BLM rangeland data shows that livestock has degraded the forage inside those overlapping allotments to the point where there should have been reductions in the number of livestock on the range.

Brian Clopp, a photographer with the American Wild Horse Campaign, said hes seen livestock numbers grow dramatically after wild horse roundups.

For every hundred cows, you have one wild horse at a minimum, he said. That would eliminate a lot of the excuses theyre doing for these gathers, where they take out a couple hundred horses and leave thousands of livestock and then bring in more livestock once the horses are gone.

Advocates are not the only ones alarmed by the inconsistencies in the BLMs data and decisions. Gov. Jared Polis and First Gentleman Marlon Reis wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and BLM Deputy Director of Policy and Programs Nada Wolff Culver on Aug. 30 to encourage a six-month moratorium on wild horse roundups. Despite the request, the Sand Wash gather continued as planned.

There remain legitimate concerns about the fate of gathered horses, and I believe that better collaboration with the state and advocates could improve assurances about their long-term well-being and the avoidance of any potential slaughter, Polis wrote. There have been concerns raised about how truly accurate the estimates are with respect to ecosystem herd carrying capacity, particularly with a nearly two-fold variability in the Sand Wash Basin appropriate management level estimate.

Furthermore, the large scale of this roundup, and tactics employed, almost certainly creates the opportunity for unintended injuries and in particular for the separation of foals from mares, the letter continued.

Polis office denied a request for an interview with the Aspen Daily News via email on Sept. 3. On Thursday, his office released a statement following the announced end of the Sand Wash gather.

While I wish this roundup hadnt even started, Im encouraged by the opportunity to chart a more humane course for our states beloved wild horses, Polis said. The outpouring we heard shows how much people care for the well-being of these iconic Colorado animals, and our administration can play a key role in engaging people who can work together to ensure the health and well-being of Colorados wild horses for generations to come.

Prior to Sept. 4, those observing the Sand Wash gather were allowed one hour to visit the corrals where the horses were held after the roundup. But due to conflicts between observers, that time was shortened to 30 minutes. Black fencing surrounding the corrals made it difficult to view or photograph the horses, but advocates familiar with the herds were able to recognize specific horses.

BLM contractors used two helicopters to gather the horses in Sand Wash. Once they neared the corrals, the helicopters would hover low over the ground to blow dust behind the herd, encouraging the horses to run uphill into a fenced-in alley that leads to the corrals. Fredrick said the trap site used at Sand Wash was placed in a particularly dangerous area a hillside covered in sharp rocks, unforgiving shale and steep gullies.

This is what the little foals are being run through, she said. These are leg-breakers. Theyre coming through here, and theyre running top speed through these little valleys and holes and washes, and each wash has these huge rock croppings. Not only are they scared, but then you turn around and this is the path theyre taking.

The Wild Horse and Burro Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program is the policy the BLM follows when conducting gathers, and it states that the rate and distance at which the horses travel during a roundup shall not exceed limitations set by the contracting officers representative and the project inspector. Gathers are usually limited at a distance of 10 miles, but BLM Colorado spokesperson Chris Maestas said that a 10-mile radius is a loose limitation and the program does not set a hard number of miles that horses can run.

On Tuesday, horses were gathered primarily from the north and northeast ends of the HMA near Lookout Mountain, which was approximately 10-15 miles away from the trap site. Temperatures that day reached 92 degrees.

During a gather, horses can become separated from herds or become injured. In some cases, a veterinarian determines that an injury is too severe for the horse to survive and the animals can be euthanized. On Monday, for example, a foal was separated from its mother and fell behind the group. It was later seen approaching the trap site with a stallion, and observers did not know what had become of the pair until the following day.

The stallion got free, but the foal was able to go in, and we have a vet on site and so that vet was able to take a look, Maestas said Tuesday. There was concern from the vet that we should probably send [her] into the Craig Animal Hospital and so [she] was taken over there, and we followed up last night and they said that she was drinking water but she hadnt started eating yet. I havent called in this morning yet.

Situations like these can be avoided, but they are not uncommon in roundups. As outlined in the Aug. 17 environmental assessment, the BLM considers alternative solutions to roundups, such as increased fertility control, gathering fewer horses or taking no action at all. Clopp said they could be considering additional solutions like a wild horse sanctuary, something that he said he would love to see.

These are herd management areas these arent livestock grazing lands, but theyre being treated as such, he said. So have it so that its a horse sanctuary. Have areas where there can be horses but no livestock, cause we already have so many places in this country where theres livestock but no wildlife.

After a day of gather activities, the captured horses are counted, sorted by sex, marked with spray paint, watered and fed. They stay in the corrals overnight until trucks come in the morning to take them to the Caon City holding facility.

Fredrick said only 1% of the horses taken to Caon City will be adopted. Data on the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program website shows that this August, there were 1,183 horses in holding in Caon City and in the 2020 fiscal year, 138 horses were adopted in Colorado. Adoption data is not yet available for the 2021 fiscal year.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, adoption events were held twice a month and potential adopters could visit the facility and adopt horses, wild horse advocate Carol Walker said. Things are different now.

They normally have adoptions starting in February, and I think it was just they didnt want to deal with it, Walker said. I adopted a horse from there before, and there were usually 13 or 14 people per event. It was small, but people would go. And in the past, I had been allowed to go in there and photograph, and then people would say, Oh, I want that horse, and they would go to an adoption. Except this time they wouldnt even let us take pictures at all.

When the horses arrive in Caon City, they are prepped for adoption. Caon City facility manager Steve Leonard said this means they are given shots and immunizations, gelded, freeze marked and tested for diseases. Then the horses will be put up for adoption via satellite images, which Leonard said is common with groups of popular horses like the Sand Wash herd.

Adoption numbers are challenging, Leonard said. Its dependent on what is wanted. I think we nationally did a 60% adoption rate of horses removed last year. This year, I cant tell you. I would just say, I expect this to be well over the national average because there is lots of interest in these horses.

In 2020, 9,181 horses were rounded up across the country and 3,311 were adopted, according to BLM data. Thats about a 36% adoption rate.

In March 2019, the BLM launched its Adoption Incentive Program, which provides $1,000 to qualified adopters who adopt an untrained wild horse or burro. More than 8,250 horses and burros have been adopted through this program, according to the BLM website. Adopters do not receive the title to the horse or burro they adopt for 12 months, and they are required to certify under penalty of prosecution that they will not knowingly sell or transfer the animal for slaughter or processing of commercial products. The BLM is required to investigate any possible violations of prohibited acts when they are notified of an animal being offered for sale. Options include returning the animal to BLM care, barring the adopter from participating in future adoptions or referring the case to an attorney.

Outright, they have to sign a contract saying they will not take those horses for commercial use meaning slaughter or anything like that, Leonard said. In fact, Im working with sanctuaries to try to say, lets place these older horses, they may not be ideal for training or a normal adoption, but they could fit well for the sanctuaries. And I have been in contact with multiple [sanctuaries].

Despite the BLMs assurance that the majority of the horses go to good homes, advocates and legislators say the adoption program only creates an increase in horses illegally sold for slaughter because of the promised cash. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, called for greater protections against the resale of wild horses on Aug. 17 and urged the BLM to conduct a full investigation into the adoption program in a letter to Haaland.

I believe more must be done in light of the disturbing allegations that some adopters have mistreated or illegally sold wild horses and burros, and respectfully urge BLM to conduct a full investigation of the matter and prevent such adopters from adopting again, she wrote. Additionally, I urge BLM to re-evaluate its cash incentive for the adoption of untrained wild horses and consider prioritizing such federal payments to subsidize training for adopted wild horses to increase the likelihood that they stay in loving homes instead of ending up at slaughter.

Organizations like the American Wild Horse Campaign and the Sierra Club also have spoken out against gather activities, including writing letters to Haaland, in the case of the Sierra Club, and suing the BLM for protection of wild mares in Utah, in the case of the wild horse campaign. After operations conclude in Sand Wash, the BLM will conduct another roundup later this month at four HMAs in the area known as the Wyoming Checkerboard.

Numbers and statistics from the Sand Wash gather can be found at blm.gov/whb, as well as information on roundups at other locations.

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BLM gathers horses in Sand Wash Basin despite objections - Aspen Daily News

The Estevan Legion Hall was nearly full Wednesday night as Souris-Moose Mountain candidates in the federal election made their stances heard on a range of issues.

Three of the five candidates that appear on the ballot were present for the All Candidates Forum put on by the Estevan Chamber of Commerce.

Much of the conversation revolved around the pandemic and the energy sector.

Each candidate had two minutes to make opening remarks. They thengaveprepared answers to a trio of questions from the Chamber, answered a few questions submitted to the Chamberthey hadn't already heard, fielded questions from the floor, and gave one-minute closing statements.

Conservative incumbent Robert Kitchen, Maverick candidate Greg Douglas, and People's Party of Canada hopeful Diane Neufeld attended the forum, which was moderated by Jeff Richards. Liberal candidate Javin Ames Sinclair and NDP candidate Hannah Duerr could not be reached by the Chamber. (The Green Party representative had previously announced a candidate, Richard Reed, for the riding. But the representative confirmed Reed is no longer running.)

Opening Comments - Conservative - Robert Kitchen

Opening Comments - Maverick - Greg Douglas

Opening Comments - People's Party of Canada - Diane Neufeld

When asked about what each candidate would do to help small business, Kitchen hit on reducing the national debt while spending money in certain areas to stimulate the economy. He said the $60,000 the Liberals gave to small businesses during the pandemic through the Canada Emergency Business Account loan wasn't enough, and spoke of how the Conservative Party would have looked for up to $200,000. Kitchen said his government would have consulted small businesses at the offset of the pandemic as they tried to balance the economy with safety.

Douglas said they would not have implemented lockdowns. He said masks and social distancing would have been utilized instead. Douglas also said the Canada Emergency Response Benefit was "too long and lucrative" and harmed small business as employees didn't want to return to work.

Neufeld said the PPC wouldn't have implemented any mandates if they were government, as it should be up to individual businesses to determine how they'd want to handle things.

When discussing vaccines, Douglas, the former chief veterinarian of Ontario, and Kitchen, a chiropractor, both talked about how vaccines are the best defence against COVID-19. But they both said vaccines should be a personal choice, and not one imposed on the people by the government.

All candidates spoke in favour of the oil sector and the coal sector and said those forms of energy are a priority for the economy.

Another topic was the cost of homeownership being so high for millennials, whose portion of the provincial population is highest in Saskatchewan.

Kitchen said making sure more homes are built is key to drive their prices down, and making sure it's affordable for younger people to invest.

Douglas said it boils down to "sound fiscal policy." He said the NDP, Liberals, and Conservatives would all have similar fiscal policies that would make it harder for millennials in the future. He added that the current equalization formula would need to be scrapped.

Neufeld said Ottawa should stop taking money from the private sector and lower taxes for business. She also said millennials need help purchasing their homes beyond just dollars; they need to "learn how to balance their finances."

"Our freedoms have been annihilated in the last 18 months," said Neufeld in her closing remarks. "We have to have freedom of expression. If we don't have that, we have nothing. Our economy has to flourish once again, and by this we have to have the small businesses, the family farms, and no more capital gains. That's got to go, because that's just biting the hand that feeds you."

"Our first choice is to work with Canada, and opening up the Constitution as we discussed would be our first choice," Douglas said in his final comments. "Imagine on election night if we sent a Maverick to Ottawa. That would get everybody's attention."

"This election is about recovery," Kitchen said in closing. "Recovery from the mounting economic debt of Justin Trudeau. Over $500 billion in two years, or like $424 million each day. It's also the recovery out of the pandemic. Let's not make a mistake here. My friends here have talked about the freedoms, and I agree this country needs to preserve freedoms. But we have no freedoms or no need for freedoms without a functioning or thriving society."

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Energy Sector and the Pandemic Were Primary Topics at All Candidates Forum - Discoverestevan.com - DiscoverEstevan.com