Don’t blame the GOP
Your editorial of Jan. 9,
”
State budget requires real leadership,
”
missed several points. The Democratic budget Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger vetoed included new taxes disguised as fees. Taxes
require a two-thirds vote for passage. Had Gov. Schwarzenegger
signed the bill, it would not have taken effect until after a
lengthy court battle, assuming taxes can be called fees. That would
be an ominous precedent.
The budget crisis would have continued.
Your inference that Republicans are opposed to taxes is
misleading. The Republican plan for addressing the deficit did
allow for tax increases. However, it also included relaxing some
regulations for businesses. Most involved work rules; when does
overtime pay start, daily vs. weekly, was one. Others involved
allowing more flexibility in work schedules.
The Republican plan would cover fiscal year 2009-2010 as well,
thus eliminating the need to go through the crisis on an annual
basis.
The Republicans’ plan never made it out of committee.
Republicans were willing to compromise. Democrats were not.
Marvin L. Jones
Hollister
Don’t blame the GOP
Your editorial of Jan. 9, “State budget requires real leadership,” missed several points. The Democratic budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed included new taxes disguised as fees. Taxes require a two-thirds vote for passage. Had Gov. Schwarzenegger signed the bill, it would not have taken effect until after a lengthy court battle, assuming taxes can be called fees. That would be an ominous precedent.
The budget crisis would have continued.
Your inference that Republicans are opposed to taxes is misleading. The Republican plan for addressing the deficit did allow for tax increases. However, it also included relaxing some regulations for businesses. Most involved work rules; when does overtime pay start, daily vs. weekly, was one. Others involved allowing more flexibility in work schedules.
The Republican plan would cover fiscal year 2009-2010 as well, thus eliminating the need to go through the crisis on an annual basis.
The Republicans’ plan never made it out of committee. Republicans were willing to compromise. Democrats were not.
Marvin L. Jones
Hollister
No new taxes
Your Jan. 9 editorial claims state Republicans have their “heads in the sand” concerning tax hikes. I say your editorial staff and those who are willing to agree to any tax hike have their heads in a slightly higher, yet darker, place.
California already has the highest income tax in the nation, the highest sales tax rate, the highest gas tax, and the highest corporate tax in the West. Our property tax is at the national average. There is no sane reason for this state to not be able to live within these generous means.
Does anyone remember when they raised the base sales tax rate from 6 to 7 percent in the 1990s? (This one percentage point is a 16.7 percent increase!) They promised to bring it back down when things got better. They broke their promise: Things got better, and Gov. Gray Davis gave fat raises to every public employee union (of whom the prison guards were the first) who came crawling for a handout.
Now they’re crying about how they need more taxes or they’ll go broke in a month. Our small, private-sector investments (401-k, etc.) have shrunk an average 40 percent, but oh, according to the socialist Democrats, we need to keep the precious public employee unions (the chief cause of the present State budget problem) regardless of our own losses.
Fortunately, the voters recently had the wisdom to maintain the two-thirds supermajority in place to prevent Democrat tax hikes. Learn from history: If we agree to any tax hike, it will be there forever; it will never go back down, and the state will just spend even more the next chance it gets.
I remember in the late 1970s, reading how then Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown sat laughing in his office when people were getting taxed out of their homes. Now I will sit back and laugh as this socialist state files bankruptcy.
Alan Viarengo
Gilroy
