Posted on 06/30/2006 9:36:54 PM PDT by FairOpinion
It has happened before. It can happen again. As liberal as they are in some ways, Golden State voters may be set to strike back at their increasingly hungry government.
We're not the only ones who sense something brewing. The Los Angeles Times recently judged voters to be "cranky about tax increases and big-ticket bonds" and noted that they now face "a November ballot that would break records in government spending."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also seems to sense that Californians may be starting to feel tapped-out. He is no skinflint on the spending side — in fact, he's responsible for those massive bond issues mentioned by the Times — but he has kept his pledge not to raise taxes.
His Democratic opponent, by-the-book liberal Phil Angelides, says the state should squeeze more out of businesses and the rich. Schwarzenegger's latest TV spots hammer Angelides for such tax-happy talk.
The June election also signaled possible trouble for the party of government (a fair description of the California Democratic Party, which is dominated by public-employee unions). Voters firmly rejected an initiative that would have raised $2.4 billion a year for preschools by raising tax rates on high-income individuals. They also turned down a seemingly uncontroversial bond issue for public libraries.
Those votes suggest that the public is getting tired of taxes and state borrowing. If they really are in a no-more mood, they'll have plenty of ways to express it on the November ballot, which is chock-full of tax-and-borrow propositions.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
If the state stopped paying for the social services of illegal immigrants, the state would have much more cash in the General Fund. The state would not have any need of putting bonds on the ballot.
Revolting alright.
The Democrats would figure out to spend it on other useless things, "votes for handouts".
Remember, taxpayers have to pay back the interest on those bonds and these bonds have a long maturity period.
You can't change a Democrat. They love spending money.
Want to save money and lower taxes? BUST THE FRICKEN UNIONS!!!
And their pensions.
" BUST THE FRICKEN UNIONS!!!"
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What is sad, is that Arnold used his political capital trying to do just that, with one of the Propositions of the Special Election last November, and the unions got out their thugs, conservatives stayed home, instead of supporting those propositions, and they were all resoundingly defeated.
You cannot forget that the current pension system will cause the state to be broke in 10 to 20 years unless they are overhauled.
We passed a proposition to stop public services to illegals and the federal courts deemed it "unconstitutional". On what grounds I don't understand.
I don't think even most liberals who make more than 50K a year, feel undertaxed. That is why the game plan is to soak the rich. But doing that does not raise much revenue, particularly in the long term, when the rich decide to make the residence in Las Vegas, and live in California 185 days a year, and not one day more. Hordes already do that, including a couple of my clients. There really isn't much more revenue to soak out over the long term, except through economic growth.
He gets it wrong in the first sentence. California voters are not deeply liberal. They are mostly disconnected. Lately they've been siding with Dems, but to do that all you need is to be Democrat leaning.
The problem in California is that the actual Democrats who serve in office are so far, far to the left compared to the average Democrat who votes for them.
It is a dangerous assumption to say that Californians are deeply liberal, just as it was dangerous to assume that Californians were deeply conservative during the 50-year heyday of GOP electoral victories prior to the 1990s.
The revenues have increased handsomely, 14% in the last year. I sent in a large check myself, just to help out.
That is a very perceptive post, particularly when it comes to fiscal issues, when the voters are engaged about understanding fiscal issues. On social issues, it is liberal city, except for the check Hispanic voters play.
Half the voters live in those two areas: LA County and the Bay area, maybe a bit more, and their voting pattern is far more skewed than the much of the balance of the state, on most issues.
You still have an influx of workers that the not educated and working service related jobs and their taxes will be lower. The higher paying,higher educated jobs are leaving the state taking with them the higher taxes.
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