On June 30th, the wishes of California voters will be fulfilled. At the end of this month, the last vestiges of the “temporary” tax increases passed in the ill-fated 2009 budget deal will expire. De facto tax relief will be given to working Californians, which is sorely needed in this over-taxed state.
For many months now, we’ve had to endure Governor Jerry Brown, and legislative Democrats berate Republicans because they believe that the voters should have a chance to decide whether or not to “extend” these incomes, sales and car taxes (and a big reduction in the child tax credit) for four more years.
Republican legislators have rightly challenged Democrats on this point, reminding everyone that will listen that voters already were asked to extend these very same taxes, but for only half the time proposed by Brown, and they overwhelmingly rejected the idea.
Lest anyone has forgotten, Proposition 1A was the top item on a May 19, 2009 Special Election ballot. This measure, if passed, would have triggered the extension of the taxes put into place in the February budget deal, which were only to last for two years. California voters didn’t just vote down 1A, they did so in a landslide. Voting for 1A were 1,668,216 (or 34.6%) and voting against 1A were 3,152,141 (or 65.4%). 1A was soundly defeated in every one of California’s 58 counties. I would also remind readers that voters were absolutely educated on what they were voting for — people did not just turn out a vote “no” on all of the measures on that ballot — Proposition 1F, preventing pay increases during budget deficit years, passed by an overwhelming 74.3% to 25.7%.
It is important and significant for Californians to understand that, even despite this “survey” of nearly five million California voters in May of 2009 showing that the people did not want these taxes extended, Democrat lawmakers have done everything in their power to try and thwart the will of the people, and extend these “temporary” taxes for years to come. Tax relief is coming in just a few days and a unified Republican Party in the State Capitol is 100% responsible for it.
In today’s FlashReport, Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association makes the case for why Democrats should adopt, on a majority votel, the budget blueprint drawn up by Assembly Republicans — and John Seiler of CalWatchDog.com, pens a piece on how welcome and helpful tax relief will be when it arrives this Friday.