Last September, the Board of Directors of the California Republican Party took the extraordinary step of passing a resolution urging Governor Schwarzenegger to stand with Republican legislators against tax increases. We did this in response to the Governor’s flagrant violation of the "no taxes" pledge on which he ran for office – twice.
Unfortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger did not, as the State GOP had hoped, stop being an advocate for higher taxes on Californians. On the contrary, not too long ago, the Governor had the audacity to propose over $4 billion in tax increase and new taxes.
In response to this, on Friday the CRP Board of Directors passed a much more direct resolution concerning the Governor’s obsession with increasing the tax burden of all Californians. The resolution passed on a vote of 14-2.
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November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Wow….
The only way to get along is not get along…..the Republican party must brand itself for rock solid fiscal policy, protecting small business, excellence in education, particularily minority students and redevelopment of decayed urban areas through free enterprise partnerships with aspiring minority business, church and postive groups working in youth programs. And lest we forget….proven, responsible enviro programs that do not cripple business and hurt job creation…
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
I am proud of the Board of Directors for taking this unusually bold action. We need to make it absolutely clear that the Governor does not speak for the Republican Party when he demands higher taxes.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
So once again, our good friend Jon goes off the rails to the far right and the CRP board passes a half resolution. I don’t see any suggestions on what to cut out of the budget to bring it into balance. Another half **** resolution – way to go guys.
So what exactly do you propose to cut? How about education? (That is 40 percent of the budget.) Maybe eliminate … er… something… I guess… maybe not… gosh…
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Wow – its a “far right position” to oppose tax increases!
Bob, you are in incorrigible apologist for the welfare state.
Tell you what, how about if the Democrats resign all of their legislative seats and we will fix this thing in about 20 minutes, okay?
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Hi Michael. It is a far right wing-nut position to, in the face of a massive budget deficit, to chant NO NEW TAXES… NO NEW TAXES… without also saying what you advocate to cut from the budget. Jon simply needs to say what he advocates cutting to keep his resolution from being just another far right wing-nut rant. As far as welfare is concerned – if you need welfare, I say you should get welfare. I don’t think people should be left to starve – government tried that in the 1840’s in England and it didn’t work out well at all.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Is there a more thankless job in the world than being on the Board of the CRP? Probably not.
So, thank you CRP Board for this resolution. This is the time when new taxes are the worst public policy and we need to focus our resources on preventing new taxes.
Those who suggest that we need to propose cuts have a point–one moment please–but the resolution is about clarity on one important thing: tax increases in California right now are a recipe for economic disaster.
As for cuts, there are no sacred cows. We need to examine our schools very carefully and educate as well as we can without all the bureaucracy. We need to cut prisons, and probably start releasing inmates. We need to either cut medical programs or figure out a way to provide the medical benefits much less expensively. And no more bonds. It ain’t free money.
I don’t like any of the cuts, but I like the increased taxes even worse.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
I see some liberals are posting here….I guess their overtime, pensions and bloated gov. worker pay may be threatened….If GM is downsizing and must grovel to Congress with a plan to revamp their business…why can’t California government get on its knees and do the heavy lifting to cut waste and bloat….cut education it is failing, cut lobbying, cut legislative staff and budgets, cut overtime for guards, police and firemen as well as useless gov. services, cut outrageous pension spiking, cut wages to private industry standards, eliminate PC holidays, sick leave and reduce vacations for gov. workers, again, to private industry standards…..now I have spirit, how bout you liberals…
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
The two members of the CRP Board to oppose the resolution were Immediate Past Chairman Duf Sundheim and Bay Area Vice Chairman Luis Buhler.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Ah… two CRP board members who live in the real world instead of a fantasy world. Robert Bosich proposes some vague ideas. Lets cut education. OK What aspects of education do you propose to cut? How about band, sports, and who needs libraries? Or lets cut medical services. Maybe no more operations at public expense? And no more medicines, too? And those pesky public employees. Lets cut out the people who administer, say, unemployment insurance. Or how about we cut 50 percent of the people who staff the DMV – so you can wait all day to renew your drivers license or register a car. Who cares? Come on people, come into the real world.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
What if we cut state spending in all areas to 2000 levels, adjusted for population growth and inflation? We certainly would not be facing a budget shortfall of this magnitude, if indeed we faced one at all.
Bob, do you believe the massive spending increases we have seen in the past 8 years have made us better off?
November 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I never thought I would type this, Bob Evans is right, it is a half a resolution. There needs to be tough cuts and big cuts and the Republican Party needs to propose them because the Dems don’t have the balls to stand up to the unions or any that are on the government payroll.Make it simple propose a straight 10% cut to every department in the state. Every single state employee, including legislators, boards etc… gets a 10% pay cut. What are they going to do? If they don’t like it they can go out and get jobs in the private sector. Times are tough they will have to suck it up just like everyone in the private sector is doing right now. Businesses across the country everyday are finding ways to cut costs, cut payroll and preserve cash our government needs to do the same.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
For Bob Evans….when something is failing and not working you evaluate it for improvement. Education is a joke in California. Money is not the answer, for parochial schools do much better with little money. What to cut…not to be vague…cut administration 15% in layoffs immediately, sell off excess sites. Streamline purchasing and distribution and information technology. Farm out all building and major improvement planning and administration to private industry, mandate year round school and teachers teaching 10-11 months annually to offset class size mandates, reduce recruiting expenses and training and staff development…in other words, get more out of what you got in human manpower….improve information technology at the school level to cut redundant staff, combine staff among a clump of schools to cut admin staff, sell off school sites not needed, eliminate 25% of the education staff in Sacramento and sell off office space or terminate leases…..get my drift….cut the fat….do something except trotting out whacko liberals whining while hiding behind guarded gates in West L.A.,Sausalito, Napa Valley and Cambria…and give me two weeks with ten seasoned managers to go through the books of the education kabal….I guarantee you massive savings without educational disruption for Johnny and Sally..
November 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Please keep in mind that any “cuts” need to pass the legislature and the Governor needs to sign the legislation. This is called realistic politics – not dream-on politics.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
No I hope – against hope – that our CRP board will get over their desire to run our state without benefit of a majority caucus and start a voter registration program state-wide. Check me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the job of the CRP to register voters and support candidates?
November 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
When I was Vice Chair-Inland Region I proposed a statewide voter reg project. This was at the CRP Board meeting March, 2005.
I proposed to call the effort “Red State in 08”. The goal was simple register 1,000,000 new Republicans at a cost of $12,000,000. It was doable and would have turned the past election cycle on its head. All I got from the board were blank stares during my presentation. I stopped and asked the board “Turning the state republican is our goal isn’t it?” They proceeded to nod their heads slowly as if it was the first time they had ever thought of that prospect. Anyway the proposal went nowhere the governor spent over $100,000,000 on a special election and California was relegated to its irrelevancy, except for fundraising. Oh by the way, Jim Brulte was one of the biggest impediments to my proposal.
This can all be verified by the minutes of March, 05 CRP Board meeting.