It would appear, based on public statements from Democrat Legislative leaders, that dealing with the state’s fiscal mess is being punted until after the New Year. This after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged yesterday to veto an outrageous scheme concocted primary by State Senate President Darrell Steinberg — passing over $8 billion in new taxes (income, gas, sales, and more) on just a majority vote!
Fortunately for California taxpayers, the vice-like iron grip that the public employee unions have on Democrats in the legislature is so rock-solid that Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass could not muster up the votes to give the Governor some "economic stimulus" policy changes that he wants in a tax-increase package, many of which relax labor law requirements on employers (California has some of the most notorious anti-business laws in the nation). So the Governor has said he will veto the package, and while he specifically avoided opining on the issue of the illegal votes to increase taxes, we’ll take the veto as a victory for taxpayers this round.
That said, it is rather oxymoronic to say that you want to have "economic stimulus" in a bill that heaps so many new taxes on Californians that it is laughable to think that the dire, negative consequences of those taxes on the economy are going to somehow be offset because of a rejiggering of workplace overtime regulations. Don’t get me wrong, all of the items for which the Governor is holding out are all good things — but while we applaud the Governor’s commitment to vetoing yesterday’s package, we think he should be sending it into the trash can primarily because of this scheme to try and tax Californians without a 2/3 vote of the legislature.
California’s Republican legislators deserve a tremendous amount of praise — they have really stuck to their guns and made it clear that year after year of chronic overspending, despite clear and repeated warnings from Republicans over the dire consequences, would not result in socking it to taxpayers. Why should California families pay the price, say Republicans, because Democrats in Sacramento cannot exercise even a modest amount of fiscal discipline.
Democrats are truly acting like alcoholics at a bar, who are trying to deal with the massive headache from a hangover by quickly drinking more alcohol. Republicans are saying that it is time to sober up, and deal with the real works. The rock-solid spending cap that GOP legislators are insisting be put in place is equivalent to placing a two-drink limit on everyone in the bar going-forward. Of course the alcoholics don’t like it — they have an addiction. But it is going to take some adult supervision and new rules to ensure that this kind of overspending never happens again.
Of course, most of the Democrats in the State Senate and the Assembly are liberal ideologues, to whom growing government and redistributing wealth is pursued with religious fervor. The idea of substantial cuts in state spending in order to bring expenditures in line with available revenue is the moral equivalent to heresy.
That said, at some point, as the state’s coffers start to empty, and government functions start to sputter to a halt due to lack of resources (such as the decision earlier this week to stop funding public works problems financed from bond monies), Democrats will have to decide if they want to show some leadership and actually put some thought and prioritization into where spending shrinks, or just leave it to the haphazard process of seeing what programs get suspended as they money simply runs out.
I am sure that these liberal ideologues, contemplating the state fiscal crisis over the holidays, will be eager to come back in January and re-engage in this "hike taxes by majority vote" scheme that they pulled yesterday. I hate to put a lump of coal in their stockings, on behalf of taxpayers, but their scheme flaunts the State Constitution. Not only will it be immediately challenged in court if the Governor should somehow sign any of these sham-tax hikes into law, but I would also look for a referendum to be filed quickly, suspending the immediate implementation of the taxes.
We’re officially in a recession, and it is a tough time for everyone. The greatest give that the legislature and Governor can give to Californians this holiday season is a big cut in state spending, the "economic stimulus" that the Governor is pursuing, and a commitment not to burden the tight budgets of families with more taxes. All of this can be achieved if there is an acknowledgement that state government is going to substantially shrink, and do a lot less with a lot less.
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