Gov. Schwarzenegger proposes sales tax increase – with spending limits

Here’s the deal.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to raise our state sales tax by one cent.  In return he is going to force the Democrat controlled State Legislature to adopt automatic spending controls – and Schwarzenegger would get new powers to “cut programs whenever the state falls into the red,” according to the L.A. Times.

I don’t like raising taxes.  But is this tax increase worth it in return for the automatic spending controls and expanded gubernatorial ability to cut programs?  Does this proposal mean Schwarzenegger is two-faced?  Or that he is doing what he can to stop the crazed Democrats in our State Legislature?

Predictably the Republicans in the State Legislature are freaking out.  Assemblyman Chuck Devore (R-Irvine) had this to say about the Schwarzenegger proposal in an email he sent out this evening:

After utterly failing to restrain government spending since 2003, government has grown 40 percent or $41 billion since then, the Governor has now proposed to increase taxes by $5 billion a year.

An excerpt from the L.A. Times story which will appear tomorrow in print:

Almost every Republican in the Legislature, meanwhile, has signed an oath never to support a tax increase. Assemblyman Chuck Devore (R-Irvine) predicted that Schwarzenegger’s proposal would win no GOP votes.

“You’re talking about raising the cost of living on working Californians at precisely the time inflation is beginning to raise its ugly head,” he said. “The last thing that hardworking Californians need right now is, in effect, an increase to their cost of living by making everything they purchase, with the exception of food and medicine, more expensive.”

Yes.  It sucks that government has grown under Schwarzenegger.  But should the Republicans be fighting a one cent sales tax increase – when the Democrats could do a lot worse – and when this increase is attached to spending limits?  I am not so sure.

DeVore by the way also used his email blast to make a pitch for campaign contributions:

As one of the legislators who will be voting to block this tax increase, I need your help. Please support our campaign with a $10 online contribution or more to signal your support for fiscal responsibility in California at this link.

Shameless Chuck!


About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.