Free Republic

The pictures told the story. They were laughing, back slapping and sharing high fives all around. It could have been Butch Cassidy and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang celebrating a successful train robbery. Only these were malefactors of another sort. They were members of the Legislature expressing their joy immediately after agreeing to make California taxpayers the most overburdened in the nation for at least the next two years. Lawmakers and the governor, who was equally eager to get his hands on the new tax revenue, sought to make the bitter medicine taste better by promising the new taxes were temporary --...

Ironically, California has had a constitutional spending cap — little known and of little effect — for nearly a quarter of a century. Experience with the existing limit illustrates that capping state spending is far easier said than done. The Gann limit, named after anti-tax crusader Paul Gann, said state spending could grow no faster than the rate of inflation and population growth. The cap was approved by voters. But over the years, subsequent voters approved a string of new ballot measures that created holes in the limit. Now, with Schwarzenegger's proposal, the state may come full circle, back to...