Posted on 08/28/2008 3:12:04 PM PDT by keat
Don't read their lips when California's Republican lawmakers say 'no new taxes' – they've put it in writing, signed their names, essentially inviting their own party to oust them if they renege.
Every GOP lawmaker except Fair Oaks Assemblyman Roger Niello has signed the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" this year, casting a shadow on budget talks by making any vote to raise taxes a potential career killer.
[snip]
Opponents argue that such vows can torpedo budget talks by making the outcome intensely personal and hamper efforts to find tradeoffs in bridging the state's $15.2 billion deficit.
"They've put themselves in a box that leaves Bush-style borrowing as their only exit strategy," Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, said in a written statement.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not signed the tax pledge, rocked GOP ranks this month by proposing a 1-cent sales tax increase for three years, which then would drop permanently to a quarter-cent below the current rate.
[snip]
Though nearly every legislative seat has been drawn to protect the party holding it now, incumbents can be vulnerable in primary elections, where reneging on a tax pledge could prove disastrous.
[snip]
Lew Uhler, president of the National Tax Limitation Committee, said he will join with other watchdog groups this year to hold lawmakers accountable if they violate the tax pledge.
"There is no question they will hold your feet to the fire if you break that pledge," said Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto. "Down the road, whatever you run for, it will haunt you."
[snip]
Niello, the lone GOP lawmaker not to sign the tax pledge, said he consistently has opposed broad-based tax hikes nonetheless.
"I just don't like to sign pledges," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
No tax increases this year - no sales tax increase, no income tax increase.
Victory.
The big questions should be :
1. Why does Calif. have a $15 billion deficit? The budget was balanced last year. What changed?
2. Are we really taxed too little to pay for everything that the state gov’t does? Calif. is one of those “high tax” states as it is. Are tax increases really the solution?
3. If spending is growing faster than tax income, and considering Calif. is already heavily taxed, doesn’t it make sense to work this deficit problem out, without resorting to raising taxes?
Never really balanced, they borrowed via bonds.
I certainly hope all you "Superior CA" FReepers remember this when you go to buy a Niello Volkswagen, BMW, Land Rover, or Audi.
This an insult that has turned Roger into a rotten RINO and he knows it. He's afraid of the idea of being in lock-step for an ideal, as is typical of "moderates!"
I've always liked Roger, but this is just the last straw!!!
How very Ron Paulian of him.
Maybe so, but I believe Roger is more of a “countryclub Republican” than Ron Paul by a country mile. I would never consider Ron Paul to be a moderate of any kind. Roger is, IMHO. But I understand what you mean about his just being “coy” like Ron Paul.
Where are the Republican districts of CA? I think it is in the northern and the Sierras area of the state??
That and some of the Central Valley and Orange County.
The Republican Assembly members, doing the work the govenator won’t do....
Honestly Roger just has a problem with signed pledges in general. Don’t read too much into this.
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