Or rather nightmare...
This story in the LA Times today says that Governor Muscles has vetoed the latest budget - that by some miracle of political compromise - has actually passed the state assembly. The story also says that because of the resulting fiscal crisis, tax payers in California will not get their state tax refunds on time. Instead, they'll get "IOUs."
OK, we have talked about the problems that Prop 13 have caused for the California state budget. The 2/3 requirement for budgetary bills is asinine and has prevented decisive responses to economic problems that would otherwise be possible because of the solid Democratic majority in the assembly. But this is a case of the personal idiocy of a single politician. A politician elected to the highest office in the biggest state in the country because he looks good on screen holding a toy machine gun.
I was opposed to recall of Gray Davis (although some on this blog were in favor of it if I remember). This is why. There are worse things than a boring and uninspiring governor with his finger in the air. Say what we will about Gray Davis (perhaps the most aptly named politician in history) this move by Schwarzenegger shows that he is worse than Davis ever was!
I don't dislike California. If I made a half a million bucks a year or so I'd love living in California. I'd shrug this kind of thing as part of the price of living in an exciting city with a nearly perfect climate. But I don't and most people in California don't even if you count every wage earner in the household. I'm not poor but when I don't get a tax refund on time I change how I live for a while (just a month or so but it matters). When I was a poor guy (and it wasn't that long ago), missing a tax refund could mean forcing me to make choices between paying rent and buying clothes nice enough to go to work in. At my current salary, missing a tax refund would be an annoyance and I don't live in the high cost of living area I used to.
So to you Citizens who still live in those high cost of living areas, you have my sympathies. I'm pretty sure none of you voted for this bozo in Sacramento - certainly not for reelection anyway. You didn't ask for this. But it's being dumped in your lap all the same.
"All the leaves are brown...and the sky is gray..."
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
California Dreamin
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 6:37 AM
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11 comments:
As I understand it, the latest budget was not passed by a 2/3 majority--rather, it was a Democratic-only package.
Then why is the LA Times saying Schwarzenegger vetoed it? I'm confused. LTG?
Because of the way they packaged the changes in budgeting, the Democrats were able to pass it through both houses of the legislature with just a majority vote. It's legally querulous, but there it is. Schwarzenegger then vetoed it anyway.
Oh, and they're going to get IOUs from us taxpayers if they're not careful.
I can't say anything about this situation out there is fun but to be perfectly selfish about it, it sure would be entertaining if there were a widespread tax revolt in California.
Well, RBR, the last "tax revolt" was Prop 13. We don't want another.
The whole thing is BS. The state cannot - CANNOT - be in this quagmire of raising taxes, withholding refunds, and cutting spending in a major recession when the US govt is trying to stimulate the economy by doing the exact opposite. We've got to borrow and spend all the money we need and get the feds to pay it back, plain and simple.
Incidentally, it was Prop. 13 that created the 2/3 rule required to raise taxes in California.
I believe the 2/3 vote for the BUDGET preceded Prop 13.
You're right, LTG: those are two separate rules.
Yeah I know about Prop 13. But wouldn't the irony be exquisite!? Prop 13 causes a financial crisis which provokes a second major tax revolt? If it were an episode of West Wing it would great. Pity it's real life.
The furious thing is that Democrats need only ONE vote in the Senate and THREE in the assembly to pass a budget on their own. That's how close they are to a 2/3 majority. Yet they can't budge it.
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