Forwarding from Red County &, of all places, the Los Angeles Times.
Source: www.redcounty.com
"During a 1:30 PM Sacramento press conference, Republican lawmakers led by Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines unveiled a no-tax budget that funds education at the same level that Democrats proposed while trimming spending in other areas."
Republicans unveil no-tax budget in Sacramento press conference.
By Evan Halper and Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
August 31, 2008
SACRAMENTO -- Republican lawmakers, who are blocking plans by the governor and Democrats to raise taxes, proposed Saturday to balance the state budget instead with borrowing and deeper spending cuts.
Their plan, released 61 days into the new fiscal year, is the first complete budget offered by the Republicans. A vote on the proposal is not expected for days.
The legislative session ends at midnight tonight, and lawmakers are on the verge of breaking the record for the latest budget in at least 60 years, a mark set Aug. 31, 2002.
The failure of lawmakers to reach a budget agreement means the session will have to be extended, but no business other than the budget is likely to be discussed.
"Raising taxes at this point will definitely damage and hinder the economy and make it even more difficult to rebound form this downturn," said Dave Cogdill of Modesto, GOP leader in the state Senate.
Republicans are proposing instead to speed up borrowing against the lottery -- something the governor and Democrats had been proposing for next year -- to generate nearly $2 billion in cash in the current fiscal year. They would also take $349 million from a fund that cities and counties tap for redevelopment projects, including affordable housing.
The plan also would close the state's $15.2-billion gap with the help of $1.4 billion in service cuts beyond those already proposed by the governor and Democrats. The additional cuts would affect dozens of programs. Cash grants intended for the children of needy families, in-home care for the elderly and disabled, and financial aid for college students would all be reduced.
Programs to protect the environment, provide treatment to AIDS patients and offer new immigrants access to healthcare would also be scaled back. A labor studies center at the University of California would be eliminated.
Together, the measures would replace more than $4 billion in new sales taxes proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats.
Schwarzenegger dismissed the proposal as one that would merely push more of the deficit into next year.
"We were sent to Sacramento to solve problems once and for all -- not kick the can down the alley for others to deal with in the future," he said in a statement Saturday.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) called the GOP proposal a "blueprint for economic disaster."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I am an independent who voted Rep until 1992. Appalled by the Rep platform I voted for Clinton and have voted Dem since. I am 66 years old and the Rep party has totally lost its way - it has become rigid, intolerant, self-indulgent and self-righteous in its ideological purity. This latest nonesense only confirms the above. Until the Reps once again become a party of adults and not
adolesscents I well be forced to continue voting Dem.
Thank you, Anonymous, for your totally objective, impartial comment. I hope you can quickly catch up in your reading from my September postings to what's going on in this district this month. We have a lot of damaging legislation and political activism that the people YOU elected are doing to the citizens of this district.
Remember...you voted for practically every politician in office right now on the state and federal level. So when your taxes go up, your gas bill to fuel your car goes up, and the next generation of children are dumb as bed-posts, remember that these were the people YOU chose! Nice job destroying California! Colorado, Arizona, Michigan and Nevada thank you!
Post a Comment