Posted on 02/22/2008 6:21:00 PM PST by Amerigomag
Missed a few things around the longest day Game Day coverage package earlier this week. Nothing earth shattering, and all of a piece with predictable developments in California politics. …
State Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman was finally forced out. He was replaced not by George Runner, an early favorite — who stepped aside to help care for his wife, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, who is seriously ill — but Central Valley legislator Dave Cogdill. He’s another member of the anti-government faction, except on infrastructure and water. Where he has bonded, if you will, with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, carrying his water storage/conservation package, so there is something in common there. …
Big Republican donors, like Larry Dodge, who is owed $3 million and is willing to play ball if the state Republicans stop acting as if they want an ever smaller tree house, are pressuring the current California party leadership. Meanwhile, Flash Report proprietor/party official Jon Fleischman, author of the resolution to keep independents out of the presidential primary, has another to keep them out of all primaries. …
The Legislative Analyst Office says the budget deficit for next year is even bigger. And says that new taxes will be required.
In this entire article, the name Schwarzenegger rings a bell, the rest must be living either in oblivion or California.
The Budget Analyst came up with her own version of a budget and hawked it as better than the governor's. It included tax increases all over the place. But that is not her job, that is the job of the governor and legislature. She stepped way out of line on this and, were I the governor, she would be dismissed.
Also, one of the Sacramento columnists let on that the Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez (Bolshevik, Tijuana), is studying a change to the California state tax code. This change would disallow the mortgage interest deduction on California state tax returns. This one change will cost an average mortgage holder in the state an additional $1,000-$2,000 in taxes.
The LAO is the legislature and quite a bit more than a simple "Budget Analyst." It is her job to give advice to the legislature. The Governor is not King--we have three branches of Government. Sure, Arnold would love to fire her -- better yet, he'd probably just like to get rid of the whole office. After all, no one should criticize the King! Why you would want to fire one of the only straight-talkers in Sacramento about budget matters is beyond me.
Arnold has made such a mess of fiscal matters, ignoring all of her past warnings and recommendations for budget CUTS. It is a sad day that she now thinks taxes are inevitable--something that could have been avoided had we not allowed a fiscally reckless Austrian to spend and borrow us into oblivion, pushing the state closer and closer toward insolvency.
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