Developing...
UPDATE:
Enter, California on the stage of the global financial crisis.
Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed the Democratic budget plan approved Wednesday in the Legislature, restarting talks over how to close California's $9.6 billion deficit.
Our take is here.
ReplyDeleteWhile the result is gridlock, the budget passed yesterday was a godawful mess, so we're not exactly sad to see it go.
I thought their budget gap was on the order of $20+ billion. What happened to that?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: the original gap was $26.5B. They erased $11B of it (sort of) with cuts in March, and then got an unexpected surge in tax receipts, which brought the deficit to around $9B.
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:43: he was willing to accept 1/2 in spending cuts (many one time only) and the other from a reinstatement of expiring emergency tax rates. He wants the increased taxes in the hopes that next year the economy will pick up and he won't have to cut more spending, thus making his job easier. Screwing the lemmings (aka taxpayers) is far easier then having to cut spending.
ReplyDeleteIt should be interesting to see what happens to California if the Reps get bounced in 2012 and the dems get to stick it to the rich and corps. I have to beleive that when you combine the Federal and state tax rates, it will not take much of an increase at the federal level to setup a mass exodus of industry out of California. Oregon and Washington will probably see a lot of the business.
Just a clarification on 9PM Anonymous's post: the "reinstatement of expiring emergency tax rates" hasn't happened, which has been the sticking point in the budget debate and the reason we're at an impasse now. To their credit, Republican lawmakers have stood united against hiking taxes, and Brown needs 2 in each house to get them to a vote. Taxpayers have seen this song and dance enough times to know that higher taxes given to Sacramento won't help its spending addiction, and that "temporary" taxes are never temporary.
ReplyDelete