People would be going to jail if a business did something like this (NJ 911)

[makattak]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/10/rescue_911_how_nj_used_11b_of_your_money_on_everyt.html

New Jersey has been stealing the money that it collects as "911 fees" and spent it on everything else. The supposed upgrades to 911 are "a huge priority" but they don't have any plan for paying for it.

Here's another amusing point in the article:

Republicans initially opposed the tax because it left the door open for the state to fund non-911 related law enforcement services. But they ultimately relented and the measure passed.

Sooo they were 100% correct that the government would just steal it and ignore its intended purpose, but voted for it anyway.

That sounds... exactly like Republicans, actually.

[Hawkmoon]

The budget does not say exactly how much of the 911 money goes where. Andrew Pratt, a spokesman for the Office of Information Technology, which is part of the state Treasury Department, said he could not provide that level of detailed spending.

"The 911 fee has paid for hundreds of millions of dollars of New Jersey public safety needs since the fee's inception in 2004," Pratt said. "Diverting resources to enable greater local spending would reduce funding for programs that benefit every state citizen."

Translation: "Using money for the purpose it was intended for would reduce our ability to pay for other stuff we don't need but looks better because we can see it and touch it."

[KD5NRH]

The budget does not say exactly how much of the 911 money goes where. Andrew Pratt, a spokesman for the Office of Information Technology, which is part of the state Treasury Department, said he could not provide that level of detailed spending.

Yeah, right.  If I can't provide that level of detail on my business expenses, it comes out of my pocket.  And I don't have a team of accountants helping me track it, either.

[Hawkmoon]

Yeah, right.  If I can't provide that level of detail on my business expenses, it comes out of my pocket.  And I don't have a team of accountants helping me track it, either.

True. Just what "level of detail" do you need? You passed a tax to fund a particular purpose. You know how much was taken in from that tax. If that amount wasn't spent on the program for which it was intended, who cares where else it went? It went where it wasn't supposed to go -- end of discussion.

[Scout26]

We have a Constitutional Amendment referendum on just such an issue in Illinois. 

If passed it will require that any taxes, bonds or other measures passed to build or improve roads and other transportation infastructure be used only to build or improve roads and other transportation infrastructure and not Blagojevich'd* to pay for other .gov projects.   




*- The term I use for .gov Bait and Switch when it comes to revenue.  Blagojevich turned it into an art form while bankrupting this state to pay for his pet projects and bullshit contracts to pay off political friends and donors.   As an example, Blago damn near zero'd out the DNR budget leaving them to operate for several years on nothing but Pittman-Robertson^% funds from the feds.   He tried to even take those funds to use elsewhere in his budgets until the Feds slapped him down and prevented it.    IIRC, I think he even took the moneys raised by selling Hunting and Fishing licenses and the various stamps associated with those licenses to use for other non-DNR purposes.

^%- If you don't know what they are, google it.  Chances are you pay them, and probably a lot of them.  My Hunter Ed Students, along with deer, turkeys, songbirds and everyone else who enjoys public lands thank you.     

[never_retreat]

They are raising the gas tax 32 cents a gallon. Still noting locking that money in to the transportation fund that is broke.
Corzine took close to a billion dollars out of it year ago to "balance" the budget.