Editorial: Brown seeks to claim fiscal middle ground

Sacramento Bee ^ | 5/17/11 | Editor

[SmithL]

In his revised budget issued Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown resisted the temptation to overspend and instead called upon legislators to pay down California's daunting debt. That's quite a concept, one worthy of support.

With the economy beginning to rebound, the state is expected to collect $6.6 billion more in taxes this year and next fiscal year. Rather than spend it all, Brown wants to use much of it to pay off what he calls a "wall of debt." By his estimate, his budget would shave $29 billion from the state's debt of $35 billion by 2014.

But there is a rub. To keep government operating at levels acceptable to most Californians, he will need to win support from legislators to place his tax package before voters, and voters will need to approve it.

Failure to approve the roughly $9.3 billion in tax revenue would result in deeper cuts to schools and other social and health programs. That's a tall order.

But alternatives are worse.

He could, as some Democratic legislators and organized labor backers suggest, try to muscle a tax extension through the Legislature this year, forgoing a statewide vote.

He could, as some Republican lawmakers urge, raid other funds and make unacceptably deep cuts in programs for the poor and vulnerable.

But Brown seems to be charting a middle path.

[SmithL]

Brown is right in the middle, halfway between Tax and Spend.

[luvbach1]

...halfway between Tax and Spend.

I guess that means tax, wait for the additional revenue, and then spend.

[GeronL]

There is no such thing as “middle ground” you either are for stupid policies or against them.

[DB]

First you make more “poor and vulnerable” dependent on government handouts and then you demand that to be “fair” taxes have to be raised further because there are so many “poor and vulnerable”... A vicious cycle that ends with economic collapse...

[blueunicorn6]

There’s your behind...and there’s the water in the toilet. Jerry Brown is the middle-stuff that falls from the behind into the water. They don’t call him brown for nothing.