Schwarzenegger Says Won't Raise Taxes Davis,hand out $53 million in grants to environmental groups

Reuters ^ | Wed August 20, 2003 | Dan Whitcomb

[Commander8]

Okay, he says he won't, but I'm still very skeptical.

[Newbomb Turk]

Grey Davis will do his level best to bust the bank even harder before he is ousted.

Just like the Clinton pardons he has to get every dime he can now before he is thrown out.

I would bet the slickster is advising him how to do it.

[Hugin]

Davis, meanwhile, appeared with Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in the Los Angeles beach suburb of Santa Monica, not far from Schwarzenegger's restaurant, Schatzi, to hand out $53 million in grants to environmental groups.

I'm confused. I thought the state couldn't afford 30 million for the recall election.

[lizma]

hand out $53 million in grants to environmental groups

I think thats OK.....if he uses his own money.

[Torie]

Schwarzenegger Says Won't Raise Taxes in Calif.

Yep, sure whatever. The dirty little secret is that taxes are going to be raised, and raised substantially, no matter who is elected governor next year. The only issue is what systemic reforms will be enacted so that the tax raises are temporary, and subject to a sunset clause. Massive reform is needed, which will probably have to be effected by initiative (public employee pensions, privitization, public school reform, repairing the business climate, etc.), while in the interim perhaps leaving the state without a budget, and returning public employees to the minimum wage. That will take time. Who is most reasonably calculated to declare a Jihad on the state legislature and go for the throat?

Ya I am a moderate, and that sounds immoderate, but I do have some skill with numbers. At least I can add and subtract, and know how to read an income statement in a budget.

Folks, the denial of reality by just about everybody in this state of California is simply awesome.

Next year in California is going to generate a LOT of threads. We live in interesting times.

PS: John, thanks for the kind words on the other thread. When we first became friendly, we disagreed about half the time; now it is down to about 25% of the time. I think that is in part because we really communicate with each other in good and honest spirit.

[AF68]

Every left-wing whack-job organization in the Republik of Kalifornia will find their coffers bulging with taxpayer dollars, courtesy of Gray Davis' largesse, before this recall is over. He's going to beg, buy or steal every vote he can find.

[TBP]

"Read my lips..."

[TBP]

The dirty little secret is that taxes are going to be raised, and raised substantially, no matter who is elected governor next year.

Not if it's Simon or McClintock. But anyone else in the field will raise taxes, or at least try to.

[Torie]

No, the numbers dictate that taxes must be raised, and raised substantially. There is no other way out of the box. Even if the right legislation is enacted (and much of it won't be except by initiative, and in the meantime, much of the spending is mandated by Constitutional requirement), it will take time to kick in. You see, California has no borrowing power left, and has looted all of the trust funds, and done all the deferrals of expenses until the next budget (that trick only works once), that it can. Next year's budget must really be balanced, no ifs, ands or buts. Period.

[section9]

I'm not sure that you'll see public employees down at minimum wage, but that pension system that Davis gave the unions as a present for their support will break the State. That has got to go. Arnold was smart to leave himself an out on taxes. A McClintock, were he compelled to raise taxes from one source or another, would have been crucified as he's already signed "the pledge". Still, I don't see Arnold going at Prop 13 or the Income tax.

Again, what do I know? I'm just a shmuck Floridian who thought about moving back to the state of my birth a year ago. Instead, I thought better of it. Florida is a CCW state, "shall issue" is the standard here, with a growth rate that is phenominal, no state income tax, but plenty of receipts to the state.

It helps, of course, to have a unified Republican Party that refuses to form a circular firing squad. We control both houses of the legislature as well as the governor's chair. No Grayouts here.

I was in California last month. Visited my family in Woodland Hills and dropped by a friend of mine who lifes in La Crescenta in the foothills of the San Gabriel National Forest. This was late July, just as CA was on the cusp of the recall. My friend, who I prefer not to name, is a gun owner and plans to move, with his wife and his career, to one of the Free States, where taxes are lower and the Nanny State doesn't breathe down your back as much. He wants to move to Nevada. Taxes are high. It is harder to start a business. He works for L.A. Department of Water and Power. But he's not an engineer. He spends his hours investigating EEOC complaints to keep the lawyers off the Department's back.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Torie]

The only caveat is if we have another stock market bubble, and capital gains recognition kicks in again, which in California is taxed the same as ordinary income. Keep hope alive.

[cyncooper]

You're as wrong with your predictions about Schwarzenegger raising taxes as you were about the story surrounding the Baghdad museum.

[Torie]

I have read somewhere, that without a budget, and insolvency ensues, public employees drop to the minimum wage. But who knows? Maybe the courts will mandate a big tax increase ala Nevada, sort of. The only problem, is that the California Supreme Court is dominated by conservatives. Florida in that branch it ain't. Maybe the 10th Circuit federal court will kick in, which is liberal. So many combinations and permuations, it makes one's head hurt, but it is all quite interesting.

[Torie]

I hope you are right, but I doubt it.

[Lancey Howard]

but I do have some skill with numbers.

How about the number '6'?
That is how many Republican votes are needed in the Assembly to allow the scumbags to raise taxes.

[sergeantdave]

Californians could easily solve the budget crisis if every citizen smoked ten packs of butts and drank five gallons of wine each day.

[chmst]

Hokay, what if California sells some of it's state held land? With no state regulations as to it's use? Maybe reduced taxes on any company that sets up shop there as well? The tree huggers would be up in arms but it could raise a lot of cash in a short time. If you are in debt you sell something, have a yard sale. Why should a state be any different?

[ARCADIA]

The solution isn't to raise or lower taxes, but to increase the volume of taxable economic activity, while reducing expenditures. If you expell 3-4,000,000 illegals and shame the federal government into enacting protective tarrifs to get Silicon Valley pumping again, you can balance the budget very quickly. California is at the forefront of the current economic crisis; but it is not alone. Whatever solution they come up with may very well resonate throughout the rest of the states.

Davis brand of liberalism run amok is dead, but so is the equally short sigthed Darwinistic approach to the economy favored by neoconservative economic globalism.

n2s

[Torie]

All of that takes time to kick in. In the interim, what?