Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What Makes Brown Think He Can Get a Tax Increase?
Townhall.com ^ | January 16, 2011 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 01/16/2011 8:39:15 AM PST by Kaslin

When he unveiled his budget, the California governor boasted that he was delivering a spending plan without "gimmicks, tricks and unrealistic expectations."

On the one hand, Brown presented some bold changes in his spending plan by proposing a realignment of state and local government. Also, Brown has ordered some small but symbolically important cuts, such as slashing his own office's budget and halving the number of state employee cell phones.

On the other hand, it's hard to understand how Brown expects to pull off the linchpin of his spending plan -- an extension of tax increases enacted in 2009. Brown is asking the Legislature to put a special-election ballot measure before voters in June that would resume increases in personal income taxes and extend increases in sales tax and vehicle license fees for five years in order to raise some $9 billion annually in revenues.

The obstacles Brown faces are enormous. In 2009, 65 percent of California voters rejected Proposition 1A, which temporarily would have extended those tax increases. Voters also rejected Proposition 1D, a measure that would have redirected tobacco tax revenues destined for early childhood education programs to the General Fund. Brown wants voters to revisit the tobacco-tax money pot, too.

That makes two Brown-inspired measures planned for the June ballot, on top of two other measures -- term limits, taxing tobacco more -- that already have qualified. Voters tend to get ornery when they feel Sacramento is overworking them. Ask Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose political reform measures tanked in 2005.

Schwarzenegger may have won re-election in 2006, but he never recovered from those ballot measure losses.

Brown faces two other big obstacles: Democrats and Republicans.

Democratic legislative leaders have voiced grudging support for Brown's proposed cuts in Medi-Cal, welfare spending and higher education. The question is: Do they have the resolve to stick with those cuts? It took them 39 days past the budget deadline last year before Democrats -- Assembly Speaker John Perez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg -- could agree on a revenue plan. Even then their "tax swap" was a let's-pretend-we're-doing-something exercise.

Brown needs a handful of GOP votes to meet the two-thirds majority threshold needed to qualify a measure for the ballot. So far, he has none.

As Riverside County GOP Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries told me, "It's pretty risky for any Republican to go out there. One: The Democrats will beat you up in a (general election) campaign. Two: The Republicans will beat you up in a (primary election) campaign. And three: The voters have already spoken that they don't support tax increases. So what's the incentive?"

Brown adviser Steve Glazer answers: "Downsizing of state government unprecedented in their political careers."

There's talk of using arcane language in Proposition 25 to maneuver around the two-thirds requirement, but there's another reason the GOP leadership should cough up the votes to meet the established two-thirds rule -- they'll have a bigger place at the bargaining table.

In the negative column, as conservative Fox & Hounds blogger Joel Fox points out, Brown is asking voters to raise taxes without having won pension reforms or dangling a spending cap.

On the plus side, Democratic operative Roger Salazar noted, Brown's spending cuts have a lot of appeal for Democratic and Republican voters who think there's a lot of waste in state government.

"It's probably not as high as people think it is," said Salazar. But by paring his own budget and targeting cell phones, Brown has demonstrated that "if we're going to ask for cuts and additional sacrifice and an extension of the revenues, we're going to show you, it's going to be used wisely," Salazar said.

In the negative column, Brown didn't campaign on the need to raises taxes, only on the promise not to raise them without voter approval. He did not come to Sacramento armed with a mandate to raise taxes.

On the plus side, Democrats have little incentive to sabotage this plan, as happened in 2009 when the state Democratic Party refused to endorse Proposition 1A, even though the Democratic Legislature had put it on the ballot.

I've spent the week wondering: Does Brown think he's so charismatic that a majority of voters will approve what is essentially a tax increase, after 65 percent of voters said two years ago that they wouldn't?

Or is Brown relying on the fact that things are so bad that even schizophrenic California voters finally may realize that after years of electing representatives who spent more than they've taken in, they can't put off paying for the government they've chosen?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; US: California
KEYWORDS: cabudget; cainitiatives; debrasaunders; jerrybrown; moonbeam

1 posted on 01/16/2011 8:39:17 AM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
What Makes Brown Think He Can Get a Tax Increase?

He's a democrat?

2 posted on 01/16/2011 8:42:25 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 726 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

What Makes Brown Think He Can Get a Tax Increase?


How do ya think he got his nickname, “Moonbeam”?


3 posted on 01/16/2011 8:47:15 AM PST by 23 Everest (A gun in hand is better than a cop on the phone.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 23 Everest

Good point


4 posted on 01/16/2011 8:47:59 AM PST by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

If our politicians could just figure out how to get enough of our money, they could solve all our problems.


5 posted on 01/16/2011 8:48:33 AM PST by umgud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

He doesn’t really think that. Typical politician.

The Dems are twisting the arms of the Repubs in DC for a bailout. The Repubs are starting to fold.

So, Brown and the media are all about “the sky is falling” and the Repubs will be humiliated into a bailout.

Just watch. “Since CA is integral to the economy, we are forced to bail them out.”

The “End of Days” for the USA is here. And we have no defenders.


6 posted on 01/16/2011 8:49:51 AM PST by Squidster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

3 reasons;

Because it’s Kahleefawneeya, he’s a Dermocrat, and they know they willl get a future bailout.......(Too big to fail)


7 posted on 01/16/2011 8:54:05 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP ( Give me Liberty, or give me an M-24A2! (Cause I'm a nutcase....))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
As Riverside County GOP Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries told me, "It's pretty risky for any Republican to go out there. One: The Democrats will beat you up in a (general election) campaign. Two: The Republicans will beat you up in a (primary election) campaign. And three: The voters have already spoken that they don't support tax increases. So what's the incentive?"


A good, old-fashioned bribe. They have to pay off at least four Republicans to get this on the ballot. Anthony Adams did rather well in exchange for his little act of treason in helping to get the original tax increases passed:

http://open.salon.com/blog/richard_rider/2010/12/15/ca_legislative_payoffs_--_bribes_by_any_other_name

"Regrettably, it appears that at least some of the votes for the budget deal were purchased with promises of appointments to the myriad of worthless boards and commission for which California is so famous. In the case of Anthony Adams, who has no experience in the field of corrections, he received one of the juiciest plums of all: A spot on the California Board of Parole Hearings which pays over $111,000 per year. Along with benefits, including medical and retirement, the value of this payoff is well in excess of the salary alone. Villines, too, got an appointment to a lesser board (paying “only” $40,000 annually)."
8 posted on 01/16/2011 8:59:50 AM PST by Deo volente (God willing, America will survive this Obamination.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PSYCHO-FREEP

The TBTF analogy is perfect. Its all about labor union and big bank / IB power.

This is like a science fiction novel where they predicted a dismal urban area that controls the rural areas. A virtual slavery of the production with the unproductive urban masses consuming.


9 posted on 01/16/2011 9:02:44 AM PST by Squidster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

It is all a ruse in that these ‘attempts’ at constraining California’s impending fiscal collapse will amount to “we tried everything but” on the road to asking for a Fed bailout.... =.=


10 posted on 01/16/2011 9:05:02 AM PST by cranked
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

What Makes Brown Think He Can Get a Tax Increase? Well for one thing it’s California isn’t it?it’s the only thing the state leaders know what to do just another democrat controled state tax and spend.


11 posted on 01/16/2011 9:25:05 AM PST by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
"What Makes Brown Think He Can Get a Tax Increase?"

Thaqt's EASY!

$150mil in Union advertising talking about all the old folks and children that will die within days of failure to enact them.

It's the Unions against both the poor and the taxpayers this time. While there are $billions in real cuts proposed by Brown...to programs and education etc...there is not an elimination of any of the odd-ball 500 agencies (Apprentice Standards Board?).

NOT ONE SINGLE LAY-OFF!!!!

To make matters worse, by moving programs to counties they are bypassing the state requirement for a 2/3 majority to raise taxes. If you live in the wrong county you can expect your taxes to go up...especially small business.

12 posted on 01/16/2011 9:26:12 AM PST by Mariner (USS Tarawa, VQ3, USS Benjamin Stoddert, NAVCAMS WestPac, 7th Fleet, Navcommsta Puget Sound)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Or is Brown relying on the fact that things are so bad that even schizophrenic California voters finally may realize that after years of electing representatives who spent more than they've taken in, they can't put off paying for the government they've chosen?

There's that false dichotomy again. It's a shame, because up until that ridiculous ending the column was interesting.

13 posted on 01/16/2011 9:33:45 AM PST by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Squidster

At that moment you WILL see secession.


14 posted on 01/16/2011 10:00:43 AM PST by crz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Brown could save California alot of money by not haveing some sort of ‘election’ every year or so.

That costs far more than they want to admit.


15 posted on 01/16/2011 10:17:04 AM PST by ridesthemiles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
What Makes Jerry Brown Think he can get a Tax Increase?

Vote fraud.

16 posted on 01/16/2011 4:16:12 PM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (Darwinism is to Genesis as Global Warming is to Revelations.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TenthAmendmentChampion

10’s of millions of dollars in TV ads from union coffers could easily make it a runaway for passage. That, and they’ll spin it as no “new” taxes.


17 posted on 01/16/2011 6:57:06 PM PST by Drago
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: All; Kaslin
He probably doesn't think he'll get it but he has to try for political cover when he forces necessary cuts.

We all know, however, Big Labor will spend whatever it takes to brainwash voters into believing the end of the universe will come if taxes are not raised.

18 posted on 01/16/2011 7:58:23 PM PST by newzjunkey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o
He's a nut?

19 posted on 02/15/2011 4:49:13 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be" said the Cat,"or you wouldn't have come here.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson