California legislators tried and failed for a second day Sunday to close a $40 billion hole in the state’s budget, still one Republican vote short of approving a package that contains $14.3 billion in tax increases.
State Sen. Abel Maldonado, a moderate Republican from Santa Maria, indicated in an interview with The Bee that he was willing to consider casting the decisive vote if he was satisfied with the final version of the tax proposal.
“I’m very concerned with the tax package,” said Maldonado, who early Sunday had been quoted as saying he was adamantly opposed to the tax hikes. “We’re still working on that. Everything’s fluid. I don’t like tax increases. ”¦ let me just work on the tax issue. I’m working on that. I don’t want my state to go off the cliff, OK? I don’t want that.”
with $14.3 billion in temporary tax increases, $15.1 billion in spending cuts and $11.4 billion in borrowing
If the article were entirely accurate, the word ‘temporary’ would have modified ‘spending cuts’, not ‘tax increases.’
The liberal utopia that is California is crumbling from within. While the effort to have the State help everyone who can’t, or won’t, help themselves, hundreds of thousands of Californians are moving out of the State on a frequent basis to seek a place where they can keep more of their hard earned money.
One of the tax increases is a new 12-cent a gallon increase in the gas tax in a State where “green” regulations have already driven up the cost of gas to one of the highest amounts in the country. (I was just there for three weeks – gas was $2.49 in some places and at least $2.19 everywhere else).
Illegal aliens are allowed access to health care, schools, welfare, etc. California is reaping what it sowed and those who are being tapped for the cost are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship.
Liberal utopia? I think not. Look no further than Prop. 8 for contrary evidence. Or the fact that 3 of our last 4 governors have been Republicans (and the 1 Democrat was recalled! That ain’t exactly liberal utopian!). Or that Prop. 13 limiting property tax increases remains, and remains incredibly popular. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, and again, our problems are deeper and more structural than simply “liberalism gone amok”. We don’t have the level of regulation or taxes of such states as Massachusetts. The Republican minority in the legislature is very active, and stymies most “liberal” projects. The defining characteristic of our state government is not liberalism, it’s partisan deadlock. You might like to blame liberalism for all our problems, but that is far too simplistic. You’re probably tired of people making such generalizations and ragging on Michigan, that’s no reason to do it to us.
I’m a Californian by birth and lived there the first 30 years of my life. For a time I was a police officer in the Bay Area, northern California rivals Mass. as a liberal haven. Trust me I had to deal with insane judges and politicians all the time.
So, yes, the State has elected Republicans, but they are RINO Republicans – Republicans in name only.
I’m as shocked that you encountered liberal officials in the Bay Area as Louis was to find gambling at Rick’s place (the Bay is where I’m originally from – I’ll see your 30 years and raise you 5 generations). Left to those counties alone, you would be entirely correct. But, as you well know, Northern California also includes the rather conservative Sacramento Valley (where I live now) and Sierra Nevada. And state politics is largely governed by Southern California, which, apart from LA County is quite conservative (at least OC and the Inland Empire are). You may not like the Republicans that have been elected, but they are still Republicans. If this was a liberal utopia, Phil Angelides would be Governor now (or someone even more liberal), and Deukmejian, Wilson, the Governator, and (dare I say) St. Ronald of Simi Valley would be on the loser list. RINO-ism does not a liberal utopia make. And most of the Republicans in the legislature are die-hard.
There was a lot I liked about the Bay State, but I for one have never encountered the level of wacked out regulation and taxation that I encountered the two years I spent in Massachusetts. I understood then why so many people commute in from New Hampshire. I have never felt that way back home, and I happen to be one of those who, as you say, is being “tapped for the cost”. Most of the people I know, conservative and liberal, cannot conceive of ever wanting to live anywhere else.