California budget in the works tonight

[byteback]

I'm getting updates on radio that the CA budget will probably pass tonight and it's pretty ugly. Anyone else getting news on this? So far some of the beauties are...

Two year suspension of the Net Operating Loss (NOL) exemption when small business reinvest back into their company. Put the car tax under the direction of Gov Doofus and not the legislature. It could triple next year.

Eliminating the teacher's tax credit. This is actually a good one but teh Union is going to wonder what they paid Davis for? LOL :)

Still IN the budget is $80M for taxpayer funded abortions though. Apparantly that's a necessity.

The debate is probably still going on so what they ultimatly decide is still uncertain. It'll be a LATE night.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the info!

calgov2002:

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[Tony in Hawaii]

Curious as well bump.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

I heard the same on KSFO, SF, Barbara Simpson interviewing one of the good guys (Richard Mountjoy). He basically said that there was going to be a budget passed tonight, and that there would be NO rollback of the 37% increase in CaGov spending over the past three years, and that a bunch of other horrible stuff was in the works, including pasage of a bill to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, which is nothing more than a subversion of our soveriegnty, as these people will be able to vote. Add, a requirement on small businesses that anyone who is eligible for the six-month "family care" leave of absence under the FED LOA is to be paid in full by the company!(we all new that this was coming.) NO, there IS NO slippery slope! Now, for CA, there will not only be "white flight" but "job flight" as well. Liberals are indeed fools. California is giving the game to the socialists BIG TIME. Count me OUT in due course. They win.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

PS: My prediction is that the once beautiful and formidable California will become a basket case by 2020. Fortunately for me, I will not be here to see it.

[Texas Eagle]

Get the vaseline out, California.

[Lancey Howard]

...including passage of a bill to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, which is nothing more than a subversion of our soveriegnty, as these people will be able to vote. Add, a requirement on small businesses that anyone who is eligible for the six-month "family care" leave of absence under the FED LOA is to be paid in full by the company!

This is a sick joke, right?
Right?

C'mon.... Everybody knows what a disgusting sewer California is politically, but it can't be this bad. It just can't be.

[Lancey Howard]

Doesn't there need to be a bunch of Republican votes for this budget and these other sick items to pass? I thought it took 75% or something....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We will know more by sunrise tomorrow.

This is why the California newspapers repeatedly call Governor Davis a CENTRISTS.

Some of the legislators are truly looney lefties!!!

[Texas Eagle]

I don't think there are a whole lot of Republicans in the California legislature. But I think you're right. It takes either 2/3 or 3/4 to raise taxes.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Under the previously passed "motor votor" law, an illegal alien in possession of a CA driver's license will be able to register and vote in CA elections. Message to all: "Motor Voter" + DL's for illegals is intended (by the Democrats) to stuff ballot boxes with illegal votes for dims by non-citizens. Anyone who buys the argument about "driving safety" is naive. The "family leave" provision also passed the CA Senate today. Look for Gov Dufus to sign it promptly. Next, look for a flood of businesses to leave the state (this is already happening). Liberals are indeed fools. I am out of here.

[BurbankKarl]

Legislators tentatively approve budget after 60-day standoff
By ALEXA H. BLUTH -- Associated Press Writer
Published 10:28 p.m. PDT Saturday, August 31, 2002
SACRAMENTO (AP) - The California Assembly ended a 60-day standoff and tentatively approved an overdue budget late Saturday that includes a total of about $9 billion in spending cuts and about $2.4 billion in revenue increases to help fill the state's gaping deficit.

The deal reached in the final hours of the legislative session abandons plans to raise taxes on smokers and drivers to help fill the $23.6 billion shortfall.

Lawmakers hooted, applauded and high-fived after the Assembly voted 54-26 in favor of the budget - just enough for the required two-thirds majority - shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday.

"Tonight I believe we've done it," said Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, a Culver City Democrat who brokered the deal and presided over the longest legislative budget impasse in California. "Although it is not a perfect bridge, it allows us to find some ground where we can at least, for a moment, stand together."

But the Assembly vote was put on hold, as the state Senate still needed to concur with the Assembly's new $99 billion plan late Saturday before the budget could be sent to Gov. Gray Davis two months into the fiscal year.

The vote capped a two-month standoff between Republican and Democratic Assembly leaders over whether to raise taxes or carve into programs to fill in the budget deficit.

Four Republicans - who refused for months to supply the votes needed to pass a budget by the required two-thirds majority - finally said Saturday they could accept concessions made by Democrats including scrapping the car and cigarette tax plans.

"I think it is my job to help the state of California get a budget," said Assemblyman Dick Dickerson, of Redding, who said he would vote in favor of the budget.

Both Democrats and Republicans declared victory Saturday. Democrats said they achieved their goal of preserving funding for schools, prison and colleges.

"What this budget is, is a responsible plan to protect vital services that this state and its residents rely upon," said Assembly budget chairwoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach.

Assemblyman John Campbell of Irvine, the Assembly Republicans' main budget negotiator, said Republicans consider the deal a victory in the area of taxes. "The straight-up tax increases have been taken out of this."

Some Republicans who planned to vote against the budget blasted it on the Assembly floor Saturday night.

"I hope the people of California are listening up because you are being shot right dead in the wallet," said Assemblyman Jay La Suer, R-La Mesa.

An 11th-hour vote would end two months of intense negotiations by Davis and the Legislature's majority Democrats to get the necessary Republican votes.

The budget negotiations coincided with the Democratic governor's re-election campaign against his Republican challenger, Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon.

Saturday's agreement features about $1.7 billion in cuts and directs Davis to cut about $750 million from government operations, rather than programs, on top of $7 billion in cuts already proposed in May. It would cut 1,000 state jobs by the end of next fiscal year and encourage longtime state employees to retire.

The plan also would effectively reduce the minimum amount of money the state must spend on K-12 schools by about $700 million.

It also raises about $2.4 billion in new money, which supporters call "revenue enhancements" to avoid calling them tax increases and appeal to Republicans and their constituents.

The largest component of the tax increases is the two-year suspension of a key tax break for businesses - the net operating loss deduction, which enables them to offset income tax liability with operating losses. However after the two years, businesses will be allowed to write off 100 percent of their losses compared to the 65 percent they can now.

The suspension is expected to save the state $1.2 billion.

Other new sources of money include scrapping tax credits for teachers, increasing penalties for filing late taxes and requiring employers to withhold income taxes on stock options.

But the deal abandons two major tax increase plans put forth by Davis _ an increase in the state vehicle license fee back to 1998 levels and an increase on the state excise tax for cigarettes.

The compromise also includes the creation of a bipartisan commission to study possible solutions to the state's volatile revenue structure. This year's budget deficit ballooned in part because of the collapse of the high-tech sector and a sagging national economy.

Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge, acknowledged Saturday that he is one of the four Republicans who plan to vote for the budget deal.

Richman, a first-term lawmaker, said he didn't think it would hurt him politically to break with Republicans and vote for the budget.

"This is the right budget," Richman said. "This is a more fiscally prudent budget than the one submitted by the governor."

One condition of Richman's support - putting to voters a constitutional amendment steering a gradually increasing percentage of its general budget to schools, highways, parks and water projects starting in 2006 - cleared the Assembly Saturday by a 75-0 vote. It needed to be passed by the Senate before the Assembly budget vote would be taken off call, and that had not happened by 11:15 p.m.

Once approved, the 2002-03 budget will be the latest in recorded California history. Despite the delay, most state workers continued to be paid, although legislative staffers and elected officials have not received paychecks for two months.

College students were unable to secure state grants for tuition and school supplies, vendors who sell food and supplies to state prisons and hospitals were not paid and some state-funded programs for the elderly and disabled went unfunded.

[byteback]

Thanks for the info. Looks like we caught a break on the car tax and the Republicans actually got some spending reductions. 1,000 jobs is way too small a cut but it's at least a start in the right direction. Reducing operating costs aka bureaucracy is probably an easier sell than trying to get the loons to cut their beloved programs. I'd like to know more on what Net Operating Losses cover. I sure hope business can still write off employee salaries or it'll get even uglier.

[goldstategop]

Never mind. What's been established is that spending cuts are on the table and the Rats won't be able to block them in the future. I consider that a plus for our side even if termed out RINOs did deliver this budget for the Rats.

[snopercod]

No mention of the "structural problems" with the budget, whereby about $15 billion of costs were shifted to next year.

[goldstategop]

Agreed. All the "cost-shifting" is simply going to do is put off the day of reckoning as the Rats then will have to make even deeper cuts. That's on top of the budget cuts they already agreed to. If their constituents are seeing pain, they haven't seen it yet.