Feeding the state budget beast
February 22, 2010 Filed in:
Budget &
Finance
Column: Mark Landsbaum, The Orange County
Register Last
week enough Republican legislators defected to join with
tax-and-spend Democrats to approve $12.8 billion of new, allegedly
temporary, taxes, including another penny on the sales tax, as much
as a 0.5 percent hike in the income tax rate, a drastic two-thirds
reduction of dependent care tax credits and a near doubling of the
vehicle license fee. These people in Sacramento don't live in the
real world. They believe things will improve if they tax people
more even though they already are taxed more than people in 49
other states. They think increasing income taxes somehow is helpful
to Californians who already pay the nation's highest income taxes.
They think Californians who insisted that money raised by the state
Lottery should be restricted to schools will suddenly change their
minds. They foolishly believe Californians will approve a spending
cap for the Legislature even though it would mean an additional two
years of higher taxes. These people truly live in a make-believe
world…