Morgan Crinklaw, the Assembly Republican Caucus’ communications director, sent this excellent release to Capitol press corps this morning.  Good for the Assembly Republicans for quickly defining the state’s "new" budget problem as an overspending problem, not a "our taxes are too low" problem.

 Democrats Think They Finally Have An Excuse to Raise Taxes 

This week, California taxpayers learned that next year’s budget deficit has ballooned to a reported $14 billion.  But rather than take immediate action to get spending under control, Democrats are hoping this will finally be the year they can raise taxes. 

The Democrat chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee this week said the Legislature should raise taxes to reduce the budget deficit.

 [Assembly Budget Committee Chairman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz] said that cuts and tax increases alike need to be considered.

“This is so big, there’s no way we can do this by cuts alone,” Laird said.  “There’s no way we can do this by revenue adjustments alone.”

(“From Bad to Worse for Deficit,” Sacramento Bee, December 12, 2007)

Republicans in the Legislature are holding firm against tax increases. 

Republican lawmakers maintain that a tax increase will be a nonstarter when it comes time for budget negotiations.

"It’s not a lack of revenue that’s created the problem that we’re in," said Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis in Fresno County.

But some leading Democrats disagree.

"Everything needs to be on the table. We won’t be able to cut our way out of this deficit without destroying education and public safety," said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles.

(“Tax Boost Predicted In Face of State’s Largest Deficit Since ’91,” San Francisco Chronicle, Decmeber13, 2007) 

Democrats have been looking for a reason to publicly call for tax increases and they think the $14 billion budget deficit finally gives them a chance.  

It doesn’t matter whether California is facing a surplus or a deficit, you can always count on Democrats to propose higher taxes and higher spending.  This year alone, they proposed raising the car tax, the alcohol tax, the cigarette tax and the taxes to ship goods through California’s ports.  Don’t forget they are also pushing the largest tax increase on businesses in state history to pay for the billions of dollars in new government spending in their massive government-run health care plan. 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.