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"Gov.-elect Jerry Brown appears poised to ask voters next year to raise taxes, or at least continue some temporary taxes that will soon expire, or see vital public programs, such as the schools, suffer irreparable harm.
Ever since his election last month, the once and future governor has been hinting that he'll ask voters for additional state revenues to partially close a whopping budget deficit, now approaching $30 billion during the next 18 months.
As Brown staged the second of his public budget talk fests Tuesday, this one at UCLA and devoted to education, his doomsday strategy became clearer, although one had to interpret his characteristically elliptical allegories to see it.
Brown said he'll propose a budget in January that will be so shocking that those affected should read about it while sitting down and hopes to conclude a deal in the Legislature within 60 days.
That's clearly aimed at having a special election in May or June to give voters the choice of absorbing drastic cuts in education and other major state programs or reducing the impact, perhaps by half, by increasing taxes."
Taking inspiration from a landmark 1970s tax revolt, a determined group of activists say the moment is right for another voter uprising in California, where recession-battered residents have been hit with the highest income and sales tax rates in the nati
California's recession has not stopped lawmakers from proposing nearly two dozen bills that would dip into taxpayers' pocketbooks for causes from trauma care to domestic violence.
The measures would affect millions of Californians in ways ranging from le
And let's put those fees – students' major concern – in context. Even with the four-year college fee increases next year, attending college in California is an immense bargain, as the new comparison by the California Postsecondary Education Commission und
The Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, declared today that the immense package of spending cuts, new taxes and loans aimed at closing the state's $40 billion budget deficit will fall short by $8 billion because the state's economy is continuing to
The fallout from the state budget mess continues for Republican lawmakers.
Two more GOP legislators are being targeted for a recall by fellow Republicans, not because the lawmakers voted for the budget that included tax increases (they didn't), but becau
One, Proposition 1A, would create a rolling state spending limit aimed at smoothing out future revenue and spending spikes. One catch, however, is that duration of the income, sales and other new taxes in the budget package would depend on its passage.
I
The state budget crisis that was more or less resolved last week sparked the renewal of an old semantic argument over the meaning of "spending cut," and while this column is not likely to end the argument, it may shed some light on it.
It began with the
Lou Correa, a Democratic state senator from Santa Ana, refused to vote for the budget package that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders fashioned until a relatively tiny amendment was made that would give Orange County an injection of $35 mi
We're No. 1 -- only more so.
The budget deal the Legislature reached today will keep California's top personal income tax rate and sales tax rate the highest in the Union.
The deal will raise personal income tax rates by 0.25 of a percentage point acros
It's almost done.
State senators were approving a deal to close the state's $40 billion budget deficit this morning after agreeing to give Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, most of the changes he demanded in exchange for providing the crucial 27th vote
Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, said he's ready to vote for the budget after scoring major concessions from legislative leaders as part of a plan to bridge a $40 billion deficit. The only remaining question is whether two-thirds of both houses will pr
Like many conservatives, state Sen. Roy Ashburn regards Ronald Reagan as a political hero.
But it's the earliest days of Reagan's experience in elective office that Ashburn has recalled this week as he struggles over whether to support the mixture of new
Republican Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield is invoking the memory of the man conservative love to idolize -- Ronald Reagan -- as he prepares to vote for a budget package that includes more than $14 billion in new taxes.
"In 1967, when the state faced a s
If the state budget proposal is approved, a special election will be held May 19 to decide how the state raises and spends much of the money. Five measures would be on the ballot, including revisions to three voter-approved measures spelled out in the bud
Newly minted Senate GOP leader Dennis Hollingsworth said Wednesday morning that he opposes balancing the state's books with any new taxes and that he would like to reopen budget talks.
The Murrieta Republican, whose caucus ousted ex-leader Dave Cogdill l
The alternative is to hold out until the state essentially becomes insolvent. There are some Republican lawmakers who think this scenario – taking the state "over the cliff" – is needed to get the public to focus on the problem and force the Legislature t
California lawmakers failed to reach agreement on how to eliminate a $42 billion budget shortfall as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to shut down hundreds of public works projects and fire thousands of state workers.
Senate President Darrell Stei
Here are key provisions of the proposal to close California's $42 billion budget deficit through June 2010:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will immediately veto the Democratic plan to reduce the budget deficit by $18 billion and urge lawmakers to use his January proposal as a template for implementing midyear cuts, according to Schwarzenegger communications directo
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