Posted on 01/07/2009 2:40:03 PM PST by SmithL
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Democrats the cold shoulder as he grew convinced he can somehow win Republican support for a midyear budget deal that includes tax hikes, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Wednesday.
The Democratic Senate leader said he and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass came just shy of closing a budget deal Sunday that would have reduced the state's estimated $40 billion deficit by $17 billion over the next 17-plus months. But Steinberg said in subsequent talks the governor spurned their offer with an eye toward reaching a bipartisan agreement with support from anti-tax Republicans instead of working on a deal backed only by Democrats.
"He believes that he can convince the Republicans to vote for revenue increases given that we're now pretty much at the brink," Steinberg told The Bee's Capitol Bureau. "And if that's the case, great. Then we'll resume a different kind of negotiation. If it's not true, then I expect we'll be right back to our $17 billion-plus proposal and try to close that out."
Steinberg said he thinks lawmakers can still avert a cash shortage if they pass midyear changes by February. While the changes alone may not be swift enough to provide California with enough cash to pay its bills, he suggested that passage of a credible budget solution would enable the state to take out sufficient loans.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
No...We need to “change” to the GOR..Grand old RINO party. Soon to be extinct..Like the Whigs.
Schwarzendoofus is insane. The dems want to change to raising taxes by a simple majority, from the current two thirds majority.
No doubt they will raise in-state tuition rates first (except for illegal aliens).
Last to go will be Caltrans.
California has its priorities in order eh!
There is no credible budget solution that's gonna happen.
It’s up to the ‘Pubs in the Assembly and Senate now: Whether to demand fiscal sanity and repudiate Arnold’s tax hikes or cave in and violate the no-tax pledges they signed. I hope that they hang on until the bitter end.
...And the difference between Gray Davis and this doofus rino is exactly what? Go ahead “republican” supporters make your case!
They should start selling thier advice instead of giving it!
The Republican case is as sick as the CRATS. Save the government jobs and programs...Case closed and screw us the people.
I wonder if Arnold’s two brain cells have ever actually met?
I live in CA and my husband was laid off Dec 3rd. So he got his first unemployment check ever, but then CA is now telling him they have run out of $ now and it may be a long time before he gets another (hopefully he has a job soon—2 possible offers look like they might be forthcoming soon).
So. . .at least I’m still working.
I don’t see how raising taxes is going to help California’s economy, particularly since it has the 3rd-highest unemployment rate.
bump
I don’t know where these people got the idea that higher taxes will solve all of their problems. They are just going to make the problem worse.
The headline reads: Schwarzenegger convinced he can get GOP support for tax hikes, Steinberg says
The article reads: Steinberg said ..the governor spurned their offer with an eye toward reaching a bipartisan agreement with support from anti-tax Republicans
One suspects the comment should have read: Steinberg is insane.
Schwartzenkennedy is a disgrace. He’s maybe one inch to the right of Gray Davis. Why o why did we not put our muscle behind McClintock???
Eliminate state programs and fire state workers until the budget is in balance plus a 10% surplus to be put in reserve!!!
The terminator needs to earn his nickname; hold a lottery ,, pull a number (or 2 or maybe 10) from 00 thru 99 ,, state workers with a SS# ending in those digits are now unemployed , not furloughed , not on paid leave , one “end digit group” a week ,, let the ones next in line for the chopping block pressure their REPS... repeat as necessary until the RATS in the House put forth a budget with cuts in it , serious cuts... I can’t think of a single agency that couldn’t easily withstand a 20% haircut, if there happens to be one that agency only would be exempted on alternate weeks.
Most of us here could fix CA if we were King,, the trouble is we now have a US Fed Gov’t that mirrors the CA gov’t ... 700K unemployed **BEFORE** Jan ‘09 is just the beginning... imagine how many jobs those $x trillion packages will starve out of existance with the taxes needed to pay for them...
You find miles upon miles of highway lanes blocked, and then you come upon 2 to 30 men, of which I played a game in all my travels to try to find 10% of the work force working. I kid you not, it is impossible most of the time to not find most just standing around, sitting in trucks, or just talking and joking around. Years have gone by with very little to show for it. Nevada on the other hand blast the work out in record time
If you want to sum up California's problems, just take a look at Cal-Trans, then add the Prison workers Union, the teacher union, politicians that are corrupt & stupid and you will understand why California is not even able to start to fix any financial problems they have. I know a California prison guard who will retire at 52 with 95% of his pay. So naturally the only thing any of them can come up with is to raise taxes and do nothing about the real reasons of our financial devastation
I work with business owners every day of the week, the best of them are leaving California in record numbers, I'm joining them and moving to Nevada. It reminds me of Atlas Shrugged.
Bring it down! Bring it down! Bring it down!
the difference is the accent...oh yeah, grey davis is a tiny little grily man and benedick arnold is a muscle bound girl man
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