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Posted on 04/22/2003 9:22:13 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/13/2004 3:30:58 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
SACRAMENTO -By a ratio of 2-to-1, Californians believe taxes will have to be raised to deal with the state's ongoing budget crisis, but they are extremely skeptical about whether Gov. Gray Davis or the Legislature will do what's right to resolve the mess.
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
It would appear many pols are ready to roll over and play the game and the public has been duped as well.
Never have so many politicians needed to be recalled.
The media and state pols precipitated this environment by its errors of omission, the legislature and courts perpetuate it, and the people end up paying for the mess, and paying and paying.
Statewide recalls are in order. Anything less will not turn this state around.
The state faces a shortfall of up to $34.6 billion through the next fiscal year, and Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature have thus far made scant headway in plugging the gap.
By a margin of almost 2-to-1, poll respondents said they do not believe that the budget shortfall can be resolved without higher taxes.
Davis has proposed $8.3 billion in tax increases to fund a shift of responsibilities from the state to local governments, and most Democratic lawmakers have said that taxes should be part of the solution.
A majority of Republican and Democratic respondents expect higher taxes, although the margin is higher among Democrats.
At the same time, a majority of people who responded to the poll don't like the idea of putting off part of the problem until next year by taking out loans. Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte has proposed stretching the solution over two years to soften the fiscal shock.
Party affiliation made little difference on this question, with 56 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans opposed to the idea.
The poll was released as the state started to get a clearer picture of the dimensions of the crisis. A week after the deadline for income tax final payments, revenues Monday appeared to be falling short of expectations.
Davis' January budget proposal anticipates about $5.5 billion in April income tax final payments -- about the same as was collected last year. But compared to this time a year ago, revenues are about $500 million short -- $2.8 billion compared with $3.3 billion, said Brad Williams, a senior economist for the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.
"The trend's not that great," he said.
The discrepancy may be explained, at least in part, by procedural glitches, he said. Returns will continue to be counted this week.
The Field Poll released Monday shows that many Californians have already accepted that they will have to pay more to get the state out of its budget morass, said poll Director Mark DiCamillo.
The percentage who expect higher taxes was up substantially from a poll taken in February 2002, when the scale of the shortfall was just coming into focus. Then, fewer than half of the respondents expected higher taxes.
"The public is already in the mode of hunkering down and saying it's coming. ... I guess the good news is that the public has already absorbed the bad news," DiCamillo said.
But that acceptance doesn't imply support, he said.
The percentage of voters who expect taxes to be increased was comparable to the results of a Field Poll in 1993, when the state was in the throes of its last fiscal crisis.
In fact, when that 1993 poll was taken, big tax increases had already been implemented to cover shortfalls in the previous fiscal years. Tax increases were a relatively small part of the budget approved by the Legislature a few months after the survey was taken.
As in the budget crisis a decade ago, the public's frustration is driving down the approval ratings of elected officials.
A scant 9 percent said they had "great confidence" in Davis' ability to "do what is right" to resolve the crisis. A majority -- 58 percent -- said they had "not much confidence."
Those percentages are almost identical to the poll results for then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, in 1993.
The Legislature got off slightly better than it did in 1993. Still, 42 percent said they have "not much confidence" in lawmakers' ability to make the right choices in the budget crisis.
Respondents were about evenly split between the approaches favored by Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Democrats have called for tax increases to maintain what they describe as vital services in health care and other areas. Republicans say that tax hikes would derail an already fragile economy, proposing spending cuts instead.
Another 16 percent favor Davis' approach. The Democratic governor favors a mix of cuts and tax increases.
The low levels of confidence in Davis and, to a lesser extent the Legislature, are likely to drop even further with a prolonged impasse, DiCamillo said. Wilson and the Legislature hit rock bottom in 1992 when the state started issuing IOUs to cover its obligations because of an impasse.
"Coupling a bad situation with a failure to act is even worse," DiCamillo said.
The statewide telephone poll of 502 people was conducted April 1-6. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
I figured that out in 2000. The people on the government dole have the ability to keep voting for tax and spend socialists. The numbers on the dole are growing. I decided the state had reached a point of no return. The productive are in the minority and exist only to slave away for those on the dole. The only viable solution is to leave while you still have the monetary resources to extricate yourself.
http://www.recallgraydavis.com
But Don't Stop There!
Let's Get Ready to Send the Rest of Da Bums packin' in 2004 and Beyond!!!
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``What struck me is that Republicans believe that taxes have to be raised, though there's not a single Republican legislator who will admit that,'' said Steve Maviglio, Davis' press secretary.
Nice spin there Steve. What the public believes is that taxes will be raised, not necessarily that they must be raised. There's a big difference. I think taxes will be raised because the legislature is infested with do-gooders, lunkheads, and highbinders and there's a hugh coterie of budget-leeches who have attached themselves to the cash flow out of Sacramento.
As for me, I find out Thursday about my program. I'm a contractor, which is a cost-effective way to provide services, but suspect I'll be cut too. At least that's the impression I'm getting.
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