States Face Fiscal Crunch after 1990s Spending Surge

Across the nation, large budget gaps are forcing state governments to make tough policy choices. While some states are trying to control spending, others are turning to tax increases to balance their budgets. Some state officials are trying to pass the buck for their poor fiscal management by pleading for a bailout from Washington. But a bailout would encourage states to continue overspending, which is the source of the current fiscal mess. The states' mistake was to allow rapid tax revenue growth during the 1990s to fuel an unsustainable expansion in spending. Between fiscal years 1990 and 2001, state tax revenue grew 86 percent--more than the 55 percent of inflation plus population growth. If states had limited spending growth to that benchmark, budgets would have been $93 billion smaller by FY01--representing savings roughly twice the size of today's state budget gaps. If revenue growth higher than the benchmark had been given back to taxpayers in permanent tax cuts and annual rebates, rebates could have been temporarily suspended during FY02 and FY03 to provide a cushion with which to balance state budgets. Current budget gaps provide policymakers an opportunity to weed out the budget excesses built up during the past decade. Yet overall state spending continues to grow. After soaring 8.0 percent in FY01, state general fund spending has not been cut in FY02 or FY03 even as large budget gaps have appeared. States should impose tax and spending growth caps to prevent budgets from growing too quickly during the next boom. Revenue growth above a benchmark would be given back in tax cuts and tax rebates. That would prevent spending from increasing too quickly and provide the option of suspending rebates during slowdowns to close budget gaps without the damage caused by tax rate increases

Subjective and objective indicators of recovery in severe mental illness: a cross-sectional study

Background: This study aimed to determine whether subjective dimensions of recovery such as empowerment are associated with self-report of more objective indicators such as level of participation in the community and income from employment. A secondary aim was to investigate the extent to which diagnosis or other consumer characteristics mediated any relationship between these variables. Methods: The Community Integration Measure, the Empowerment Scale, the Recovery Assessment Scale, and the Camberwell Assessment of Needs Short Appraisal Schedule were administered to a convenience sample of 161 consumers with severe mental illness. Results: The majority of participants had a primary diagnosis of schizophreniform, anxiety/depression or bipolar affective disorder. The Empowerment Scale was quite strongly correlated with the Recovery Assessment Scale and the Community Integration Measure. Participants with a diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder had signifi cantly higher recovery and empowerment scores than participants with schizophrenia or depression. Both empowerment and recovery scores were significantly higher for people engaged in paid employment than for those receiving social security benefits. Conclusions: The measurement of subjective dimensions of recovery such as empowerment has validity in evaluation of global recovery for people with severe mental illness. A diagnosis of bipolar disorder is associated with higher scores on subjective and objective indicators of recovery

Eelgrass Habitat Creation in Nantucket Harbor, Massachusetts

In response to eelgrass habitat losses associated with development and marine activities in and around Nantucket Harbor, a plan to restore a meadow by transplanting eelgrass to previously vegetated areas was developed in conjunction with the Nantucket Land Council. Over 6,000 eelgrass shoots were sustainably harvested from an extensive bed within the Harbor that was located just west of First Point and near the inlet to Nantucket Sound. Four weeks following collection, impacts from our collection were shown by a 24% decline in shoot density, but live eelgrass cover did not decline significantly. After 12 weeks, no effects of collecting could be measured at the donor site for shoot density or cover. Plants had difficulty establishing within the restoration area due in part to extensive phytoplankton and macroalgal blooms that dramatically shaded the transplants for the initial three months following transplanting. After the first growing season, few of the 6,000 plants had survived, but those plants that survived became well established and grew through the second growing season in 2011. The significance of the macroalgae was documented through estimates of percentage cover, whereas light measurements showed the decline in water clarity from phytoplankton blooms to less than 10% ambient. Combined with our planting and monitoring results, our observations suggest that reestablishment of eelgrass beds in Nantucket Harbor is not limited by the distribution of seedlings, but by shading from phytoplankton and macroalgal blooms that resulted in levels of light too low to support eelgrass establishment during the summer months in 2010

Wetlands Evaluation for Philbrick\u27s Pond Marsh Drainage Evaluation North Hampton, NH

Philbrick’s Pond is a lagoon type estuary that formed landward of barrier beach spits in North Hampton, NH. Its inlet was stabilized and restricted by the road that is now Route 1A or Ocean Boulevard. Water flow from the Gulf of Maine passes through a culvert running under Route 1A and into a small waterway and is further restricted as it runs through a clay pipe under an old trolley berm. The lagoon is characterized as a 29 acre tidal marsh. The goal of the overall project is to evaluate the condition and hydrology of the two restrictions recognizing the conflicting needs for improved drainage from upstream flooding and limiting tidal flooding associated with extreme (i.e., storm surge) and normal flooding events due to sea level rise. The tidal marsh itself is a resource held in the public trust and therefore should be protected from any negative impacts associated with current conditions or predicted impacts due to future alternatives that may be chosen by the Town and its residents. Ditching of the marsh in the mid twentieth century rerouted drainage paths (e.g., Chapel Brook) and has resulted in large areas of vegetation loss between ditches in the past 60 years, as first reported by Short in 1984. The objectives of this report on the tidal marsh are threefold: 1) to evaluate the health of the tidal marsh by comparing existing and new data in Philbrick’s Pond with conditions found in the Little River tidal marsh just to the south; 2) characterize the relative benefits to the tidal marsh for the hydraulic alternatives evaluated by the hydrologic modeling; and 3) recommend management actions to restore marsh health using small scale drainage improvements (also known as runneling)

Pastoral Pitfalls: Solutions to Navigating the Stresses of Twenty-First Century Ministry

American church clergy and their families are suffering from the effects of Twenty-First Century ministry and the stresses of the local church, according to research from the Fuller Institute, Barna Group, and Pastoral Care Inc. Much of the research in this area and its effects on the clergy and churches occurred more than a decade ago. Through updated research and surveys of current Southern Baptist ministers in the Baptist General Convention of Texas, this thesis will offer solutions to how these dangers can be lessened or alleviated. Through the presentation of updated statistics, the seriousness of this problem for the modern church will be made apparent for an examination of the attitudes toward the pastor in the local church. Solutions will be offered that will result in training opportunities for seminary students and current ministers on how to navigate these treacherous waters of ministry and emerge on the other side with stronger ministries, families, and churches ready to face the new normal of doing ministry in the Twenty-First Century

Applications of high resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric data in the Barberton greenstone belt of South Africa.

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Science University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the degree of Master of ScienceAC 201