Our esteemed editor Jon Fleischman posted a John Fund commentary on the state budget crisis, in which Fund mentioned speculation that Darrell Steinberg and Karen Bass might pass a tax hike on a majority vote.

I say: please, go right ahead. Not only would it be declared unconstitutional, but California voters would be presented with an enormous, purely Democratic tax hike.

I’m all for clarity, and in this case such a rash action by Bass and Steinberg would make it crystal clear to California voters that the Democrats are the party of higher taxes, the party of raiding working family budgets rather than restraining the state spoending spree.… Read More

This morning we praised Senator Cox as being one of 13 GOP Senators who are keeping every family in California safe from billions in new taxes. Now the word is that he is in heavily, unilateral negotiations to try and “strike a deal” — not good. Republicans united can move forward a no taxes plan, such as the one simply articulated by Steve Poizner today. Senator Cox, please help Republicans reject this plan!… Read More

I appreciate that Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has come out strongly against the budget deal with its $14 billion tax hike (although I cringed at his "they don’t have the guts to raise taxes on the rich" comment. Can we please not lend any credibility to progressive taxation?).

So why is Poizner headlining an event to raise money for Anthony Adams, one of the three Assembly Republicans who is voting to pile this mass of taxes on the rest of us?:

This tax hike isn’t an ordinary issue on which Republicans of good will can disagree. This is elemental. It goes to the heart of the Republican Party’s reason for being. It is a political Rubicon that shouldn’t be crossed without penalty.

One penalty is party luminaries should shun tax-hikers like Adams and refuse to raise money ffor them. I’d like to see Poizner put some teeth into his rhetoric and say, "Sorry Assemblyman Adams, but I can’t ask republicans to… Read More

EDITORIAL FROM TOMORROW’S PRINT EDITION OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

If you thought Washington’s stimulus debate was depressing, take a look at the long-running budget spectacle in California. The Golden State’s deficit has reached $42 billion, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to furlough 20,000 state workers (go ahead, make our day), and as we went to press yesterday Democrats who control the legislature had blocked lawmakers from leaving until they finally get a deal.

It’s sad to watch. The Golden State — which a decade ago was the booming technology capital of the world — has been done in by two decades of chronic overspending, overregulating and a hyperprogressive tax code that exaggerates the impact on state revenues of economic boom and bust. Total state expenditures have… Read More

The Lincoln Club of Orange County has sent a letter to the State GOP Legislative leaders and Senators Maldonado and Cox urging them to oppose the current budget deal.

See the link to the letter below.… Read More

What has your Assemblyman done for you lately?

According to Capitol Weekly and Hagman COS Mike Spence, the Assemblyman pulled two people out of a burning car that had crashed near his Sacramento apartment last night.

The drive ran off after Hagman pulled him from the burning vehicle which later exploded. The passenger, a woman allegedly blew a .33 on the breathalyzer… Read More

[Cross-posted from OC Blog]

Capitol Alert just posted an article about Sen. Abel Maldonado naming the price of buying his vote for the largest tax increase in state history:

A blanket primary in which the top two vote-getters make the general election. Denial of per diem to legislators if they don’t pass a budget on time. A ban on legislative per diem and pay increases in budget deficit years. Removing unspecified pork from the budget package.

Gosh, can Maldonado’s litany be any more transparently self-serving?

Abel wants to run statewide in 2010, and knows that voting for a $14 billion tax hike makes him a dead-candidate-on-a-stick in a closed GOP primary. Apparently, he believes he’d fare better as a tax-hiker in a blanket primary — although I think he’d be just slightly-less dead meat even in that set-up.

Demands… Read More

This morning, around forty Republican legislators have to look back at the bleary mess that was their President’s Day Weekend (and somewhere in there was Valentine’s Day, too), wondering exactly what happened to them. With the seeming speed of the flip of a switch, Republican representatives to the “Big 5” signed off on a Big 5/Big Taxes budget “deal” that would make any professional sausage maker proud.

The problem with the plan is that at its center is a massive increase in taxes (sales tax, car tax, car fee, income tax) that totals over $14,000,000,000.00 (multiply that out a few years to really see that number grow – all of those zeros, by the way, make it BILLIONS). Completely conceded in this Big 5/Big Taxes plan is the notion that Republican lawmakers were elected to office with a pledge to protect Californians from higher taxes (let alone tax hikes of this record-making magnitude). There are two underlying assumptions to this plan that are flawed – the first of which is that there is simply no way to balance the state’s books without a tax increase. The second… Read More