Sen. John Benoit, R-Palm Desert, votes no on a budget bill as the Senate takes up the budget bills Sunday morning without success.
Posted on 02/15/2009 5:25:19 PM PST by SmithL
California legislators trudged through a second day of trying to close a $40-billion hole in the state's budget this afternoon, still one vote 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 in the early morning hours 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. I bolted (solid Republican opposition) before and voted for budgets, but they never had tax increases ... this is a different situation. That's why I'm hesitant.
"Here you have Barack Obama saying 'no new taxes' and here we're saying 'yes' to taxes I'm trying to digest that. 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."
Both houses took recesses this afternoon and were expected to resume debate - and a lot more milling around - later today.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Voters get what they deserve, always.
That's Sam Aanestad.
All those Republicans look the same to the Sac-O-Bee.
Totally disgusting that when times are hard and they claim people are “hurting” the government rushes to tax those people and preserve itself.
Yeah, Palm Desert - Grass Valley, it's all the same place right? Somewhere out in the wilderness where people drive pickup trucks.
>>Somewhere out in the wilderness where people drive pickup trucks.
And cling to their bibles and guns, no doubt. ;-)
If it passes get ready for another wave of people hauling ass out of mexifornia.Unreal.
I was listening to the Senate session. They voted on a bunch of bills and then Aanestad asked to speak. He suggested that they needed to start having these discussions in a public forum, instead of all the behind the closed door shenanigans that have been going on for the last 28 hours.
In response, Steinberg got up and had a total hissy fit. I don’t know if he is always like that, but he sounded like he was in a total meltdown.
No budget today... the Senate adjourned for the night. 11:00 AM tomorrow, they’ll pick it up again.
Thanks for your update. I get no California news where I am. The rest of California doesn’t claim us...thank heaven. lol!
Good news, indeed.
May I assume that Correa voted for the increase?
Yeah, they sweetened the pot for Correa by giving Orange County more dollars.
He fell in line with his comrades.
Well, it would have been nice if I remembered to ping ya! LOL.
So sorry!
:-)
LOL! Honey, I feel I’m doing good when I DO remember someone to ping!
Ah! So Correa does have Democrat values!
LOL. Well, he’s a politician with a price. That has been established.
I don’t know much about him.
LOL! I hear ya!
So who was the one vote that came up short on? Sounds like sainthood is close at hand. The article was almost incoherent...
From what I can decipher, the vote counting is happening behind closed doors, not actually on the floor.
Until they know that they have enough, they won’t call for a vote.
They have Cogdill, the “leader” saying this is the “best deal he could get.” Now they just need one more. It seems Cox, Maldonado, and Ashburn were labeled as potential targets. No one has openly given in yet, though.
I may have this wrong, but that’s my understanding.
What a circus they have up there.
Hey! It’s a huge power struggle and in spite of the white hot pressure cooker these struggling Repubs are trying to withstand, they can be made to feel awfully small by a feeling that they are all alone. Which isn’t true and we should call/write and keep reminding them that we are with them and how good they will feel later if they keep their fingers in the dikes!!!
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