Posted on 06/19/2007 7:46:15 AM PDT by SmithL
IF YOU want to know why the state budget is such a mess, consider the Assembly's 48-29 vote in favor of AB118. The measure, authored by Speaker Fabian Núñez, would raise fees paid by California drivers by $167 million in order to fund research for alternative and renewable fuels.
According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, state expenditures are expected to exceed revenue by more than $3 billion for this budget year (2007-08), and the deficit is expected to grow to more than $5 billion in 2008-2009. So what does Sacramento do? Raise fees to pay for new programs, even though it doesn't raise enough money to fund today's programs.
In the rush for Sacramento lawmakers to catch the wave of the latest trendy new thing, they're happy to expand the size of government, even if they can't buy old government all its shoes.
Asked why the Legislature would be raising taxes (excuse me, "fees") to pay for new programs when it has failed to close the structural spending shortfall, Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, evoked an old Ronald Reagan quote: The California Legislature, Coupal opined, is like a baby's "alimentary canal," with "an insatiable appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."
But Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, argued that the fee increases to fund fad-fuel research -- OK, those are my words -- show the Legislature is growing: "At least they're not taking it out of the current budget. At least they're saying we have to pay as we go. Usually, they pass legislation and take it out of the general fund."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Cut back on the waste in the California education system and they’ll have all the money they need. Freeze all taxes and fees until the state balances their budget. Leave the fuel problems up to industry. They worry about the poor and they keep raising taxes and fees. Amazing.
But the little brown kids are overwhelming the California educational system.
Most assuredly, Arnold will veto this as a tax increase. /s
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"5:34 Calpine files reorganization plan to emerge from Chapter 11
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