Brown Says California Faces $25 Billion Cut Without Vote

[The Northerner]

California Governor Jerry Brown pledged to cut $25 billion from an $85 billion spending plan to close the state’s budget gap if lawmakers block a special election to allow voters to extend temporary tax increases.

If lawmakers don’t approve the special election, Brown said he’d hold up the budget for as long as it takes to eliminate the $25 billion deficit through spending cuts.

"It’s very fundamental, whether you vote the taxes or you vote the cuts," said Brown, a 72-year-old Democrat who was governor from 1975 to 1983. He spoke today at a joint legislative budget conference committee hearing in Sacramento.

Brown has pledged to fix the financial strains that have left California with the biggest deficit of all U.S. states, and the lowest credit rating. With an economy bigger than Russia’s, California has coped with $100 billion of budget gaps in the past three years amid the global recession.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-24/brown-says-california-faces-25-billion-in-budget-cuts-without-tax-vote.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The Republicans have dug in their heels.

No raising or extending of taxes.

EVER.

Jerry has his work cut out for him.

Time to really marginalize those idiot Republicans.

Past due time.

[fittosurvive]

2. I believe the question of tax hikes has been laid before all of the people of CA.

It is up to them...

[Sirveri]

19. That's what he's trying to do. The repubs don't even want it to come to a vote.

Starve the beast and all that.

[fittosurvive]

20. That’s par for the course within the realm of the present political climate.

Everyone is shirking their responsibilities.

[AsahinaKimi]

13. 100% agree

eom

[taught_me_patience]

3. It's pretty difficult to swallow more taxes here in California

I hope they look for more areas to cut and consider raising taxes as a last resort.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. It'll be hard but --

I am willing to do it, so long as everyone shares the pain (hello 2%ers and big business). I would rather cough up more $$$ than lose services. :(

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. It depends on which taxes you're talking about.

I mean to raise them on the richest 1%. They can afford it.

It will benefit everyone.

[taught_me_patience]

8. That's not the taxes they will put up for referendum

It's exention of sales taxes, car taxes, etc... that hit the middle class.

[KamaAina]

6. What areas are left to cut?

Most of the state budget goes to education, including K-12 education (because the state has to bail out localities impoverished by Prop 13), and health and human services: Medi-Cal, CalWORKS, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), etc. Things like prisons that would be easier to cut are a relatively tiny slice of the budget.

We need more revenue, or risk turning into Texas or Florida with lower humidity. It doesn't and shouldn't have to come from our pockets: an oil severance fee (we have none; Alaska has 25%) and an 11% tax rate on millionaires are examples.

[taught_me_patience]

10. Prisons, pensions

Sorry, the pension system is bloated and just about bankrupt. I suggest elimnating the pension for new hires, not allowing double dipping, and converting state workers to to a 401k.

The prison system is bloated and costs way too much per prisoner.

[KamaAina]

12. Agreed on double dipping, "spiking", etc.

"Spiking" is the practice of working as many overtime hours they year before you retire, because your retirement pay is based on your last year's salary. Some "spikers" end up pulling down more in retirement than they ever did while working (up until that last year). :wtf:

But that's still not going to close the yawning gap.

[shanti]

17. you won't find

any friends here with those repuke lies about pension :( CALPERS is NOT just about bankrupt. the prison system, however, is bloated, i'll agree with that.

[DBoon]

7. per dollar of market value property taxes are really low

And the longer you own your property, the lower they get. This includes corporate owners, not just single family homeowners.

there are also the cuts in corporate taxes the republicans pushed through a year ago, as their quid pro quo for allowing a budget to pass. Repealing these would bring back several billion dollars a year.

There is the absence of any oil severance tax, California being the only major oil producing state not to levy one (Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, even Sarah Palin's Alaska all tax oil production). A tax in line with other oil producing states would bring in several billion dollars a year.

[SoCalDem]

9. We NEED a tax hike.. You cannot keep cutting taxes and expect things to stay the same or get better

Don't we all know that by now?

example.. we OWE fed taxes of $2,280.00 this year and we are getting a tax REFUND from California , of $871.00 how does THAT happen?

[slackmaster]

14. You need to adjust your withholding allowances

Fewer federal allowances, more state ones.

[SoCalDem]

18. We got slammed this year because my husband started collecting SS while working

and got a larger bonus than we expected..

His SS included a lump sum he could have taken in 2009.. we knew we were going to pay.. Until this year we have always gotten a little back:)

Next year will be better because we are going to put more into his 401 and increase his wh a little to cover it:)

[taught_me_patience]

15. I don't think they've cut taxes recently.

In fact, taxes here in California have never been higher.

[frazzled]

11. We just raised income taxes here in Illinois

They were way too low to begin with (and flat: a flat 3%, which has been raised by 66% to 5%). California's are already much higher, so that's not probably viable. But we pay much higher property taxes than California, and, if you live in Cook County, a higher sales tax. If I were a Californian, I'd be looking to raise those artificially low property taxes.

Governor Quinn ran on a platform of raising taxes, and people responded positively by electing him over the Republican tax-slashing alternative. Emanuel ran for mayor just now on a platform of imposing new taxes on luxury services (mango facials for your dog). People are not unreceptive to this--when faced with the alternatives.

[shanti]

16. and he ain't lying

he's a man of his word, jerry brown is.