Free Republic

Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, takes over as state Senate leader after the current session ends. The Bee talked with him about the budget and taxes.Q: Why would the Democrats roll out a tax plan that they knew ahead of time the Republicans wouldn't vote for?A: There's actually some consensus that has developed over the past several years. It's clear from even the way the Republicans are acting in the budget negotiations, there is a common recognition that we cannot cut our way out of this problem. The Republicans aren't putting $15 billion of cuts on the table, for good reason....

Frustrated that the state has no budget more than two weeks into the fiscal year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he may insist that legislative leaders begin marathon negotiating sessions until they secure a deal. "It is almost like there is no emergency there," Schwarzenegger told The Bee in an interview. "At one point or the other, you have to say, like they do with labor negotiations, 'let us sit in the room and not leave the room until it's done.' We have done that in the past, we have sat here until three in the morning. Eventually, I'm going...

Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, sat down with The Bee to talk about the state budget standoff. A month after their June 15 deadline to approve a budget, lawmakers have yet to take a vote.Q: Do you support all of the tax increases proposed by the Democrats?A: I think (the proposal) represents a very balanced and thoughtful approach. … We've said consistently that we think the solution to the budget deficit ought to be a balance of cuts and revenue increases. Q: Where are the cuts?A: We're about $2 billion below where we should be on education. … We've made cuts...

The day after unveiling $8.2 billion in proposed tax increases mostly on high-income earners and corporations, legislative Democrats on Wednesday said they have done all they can to trim the state budget without harming education and health care. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said they were drawing a line in the sand and would demand the tax increases be part of the solution to close a $15.2 billion shortfall in the $101 billion general fund. Republicans, again, said the tax plan faced certain defeat because they would not supply the votes to reach the...

Democrats on Tuesday proposed billions in tax increases on businesses and high earners to help bridge California's budget shortfall. The proposed hikes include rolling back the dependent child income tax credit expanded in the 1990s, creating two higher income tax brackets for the state's biggest earners and increasing corporate taxes. The long-awaited list of revenue proposals faces near certain defeat, however, as Republican lawmakers have repeatedly said they are unified in their opposition to any tax increases. Approving a budget and increasing taxes requires a two-thirds vote, which means GOP support is mandatory. "I guarantee you it will be a...

Californians would pay higher traffic ticket, parking, car registration, property insurance and other fees under dozens of proposals flying around the Capitol. Whether taxes ultimately are raised, state officials are looking to cut a $15.2 billion deficit by increasing other revenue. Higher fees could bolster the California Highway Patrol, state parks, emergency services, state wildfire response, oil-spill prevention and various public programs. Fee hikes are not touted as a way to solve the massive deficit, but they could soften the blow as legislators fight over sales and other taxes. Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said...

Even as lawmakers of both parties talk about the need to shift the country toward clean, renewable energy, Congress is in danger of letting key tax credits that have fueled the growth of wind and solar power expire at the end of the year. The Senate failed for the second time in a week Tuesday to pass a bill to help businesses and homeowners switch to renewable energy. The tax incentives have strong bipartisan support, but they have been caught up in a fight between Democrats and Republicans over how to pay for them. The stalemate is causing jitters among...

This year's version of California's more or less perpetual state budget crisis has four noteworthy aspects, to wit:• The $15.2 billion projected deficit in the 2008-09 budget's general fund is the worst of recent history. Roughly half is the "structural deficit" that has plagued the state for the past seven years; the remainder is the result of reduced revenues from a sharp economic downturn.• The political differences are every bit as wide as the financial gap. Democrats, who had been coy about advocating tax increases to close the structural deficit, now are saying taxes should be raised, although they differ...

IT'S AN UTTERLY remarkable American story that Barack Obama, by means of extraordinary energy, intelligence, charm and eloquence, is on the verge of being the first black to secure the Democratic nomination for President, but no one who has been paying attention can buy his pledge of change. He offers more of the same. Beginning most notably with FDR's New Deal, the federal government has been extending its reach in America, ignoring constitutional restraints, usurping the responsibilities of other levels of government and involving itself in virtually every aspect of our lives to the point where we now face a...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is proposing to raise $6.4 billion in taxes to balance the state budget. Bass told the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday she wants to close tax loopholes and eliminate tax breaks on wealthy Californians. She declined to say which taxes Assembly Democrats want to raise.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST SHORTCOMINGS of the conservative mind is that conservatives generally have moderate intellectual temperaments and therefore don't really grasp the radicalism of the opposition. When the opposition says something that would be absurd if taken to its logical conclusion, we tend to assume that they won't take it there, simply because we wouldn't if we were in their position. Nowhere is this clearer than on the issue of sexual mores. I must caution the reader that the content of this article is shocking and absurd, (not to mention unsuitable for children) but I regrettably cannot say that...

California has always been looked upon across this country and around the globe as the state that leads – in its diversity of communities, its beautiful coastline, its commitment to protecting the environment from the ravages of climate change, its world-renowned public universities and the innovation by its best and brightest minds. However, California's luster has tarnished, today boasting the highest gas prices in the nation, consumers paying top-dollar for groceries and being among the top five states in home foreclosures last year. As if this weren't enough, Californians are about to be sucker-punched again from the effects of an...

While Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton was preparing to call for a 17 percent hike in city property taxes, he had a little tax problem of his own: unpaid city and county property taxes. This morning, Herenton paid $5,768 in Shelby County property taxes on his home at 5281 Horn Lake. They were due Feb . 29. The amount paid this morning included $168.02 in interest and penalties. City taxes on a property owned by Herenton Investment Co. at 270 Dubois, located in the Banneker Estates subdivision that Herenton is developing and where he lives, were paid yesterday. As of Wednesday,...

In an interview in conjunction with his big economic speech in New York, Senator Obama tells CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo he favors increasing the capital-gains tax rate Bartiromo reported: “Right now, as you know, the cap gains tax is at 15 percent. He has yet to give us a specific number. How high he wants that number to go? He has said, and he told me today, that he won't go above 28 percent. So we are talking about the possibility of a doubling in the capital gains tax. He was averaging at about 25 percent.” Here is her exchange with...

Trustees for the government's two biggest benefit programs warned Tuesday that Social Security and Medicare are facing "enormous challenges," with the threat to Medicare's solvency far more severe. The trustees, issuing a once-a-year analysis of the government's two biggest benefit programs, said the resources in the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by 2041. The reserves in the Medicare trust fund that pays hospital benefits were projected to be wiped out by 2019. Both those dates were the same as in last year's report. But the trustees warned that financial pressures will begin much sooner when the programs begin...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he does not want to raise taxes to solve California's budget problem. But he also says he has not ruled anything out, and he is willing to discuss any idea that could reasonably help narrow a persistent gap between the state's spending and its revenues. One of those ideas might be to broaden the sales tax to cover some services rather than only the sale of goods, Schwarzenegger said last week at a town hall meeting in the Northern California city of Pleasant Hill. "The way we are taxing. I mean, we are missing a lot...

The 212-207 roll call Thursday by which the House approved a budget blueprint that would raise taxes by $683 billion over the next five years and provide increases to domestic federal programs. A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the resolution. Voting yes were 212 Democrats and 0 Republicans. Voting no were 16 Democrats and 191 Republicans. X denotes those not voting. There are 4 vacancies in the 435-member House. . . .

A political fight over raising taxes to help solve California's fiscal crisis was touched off Wednesday when Democratic lawmakers proposed taxing big oil to help pay for threatened public education programs.ABX3 9, introduced by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, would have raised $1.2 billion a year by taxing oil firms' windfall profits and through a separate tax on petroleum that is pumped in California.The bill, which required a two-thirds vote to pass, was defeated on the Assembly floor after Republicans refused to vote for the new taxes. But several other Democrat-authored tax bills are likely to stir heated debate...

It won't outdraw the Stones or Hannah Montana, but the "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour" should be just as electrifying. It's a bipartisan band of Washington budget wonks, headlined by the retiring Comptroller General David Walker, with a basic message: This country is headed toward a financial train wreck that Washington won't face. Fractured politics are begetting the worst possible results: ever-rising costs for safety-net programs such as Medicare and Social Security while leaders dodge the long-term consequences. That's the central message of the doomsday crew making the rounds of college campuses, lunch groups and newspaper editorial boards. The band leader is...

If the previews are any indication, the summer of 2008 is shaping up to be a blockbuster show in Sacramento, a classic struggle for the hearts and minds of Californians, a contest between those who want bigger government and advocates of a slimmer state. The Democrats who control the state Senate declared last week that they won't vote for a budget this year that does not raise taxes. Their goal: something on the order of $5 billion. But almost every Republican in the Legislature has signed a pledge asserting that they will not vote for a tax increase. This is...

Bay Area residents would pay another $1 on their annual vehicle-license fees and 10 cents on a gallon of gas under legislation proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday. And unlike earlier attempts to raise money for transportation programs, both proposals appear to have state legislators prepared to argue for them in Sacramento. The newest item on the commission's legislative agenda for the 2008 legislative session is a $1 addition to the state vehicle-license fee paid by Bay Area residents. The $6 million raised annually would boost a program that increases freeway efficiency with tow trucks that quickly remove...

Washington - -- As Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton toured the land denouncing special interests, giveaways to the rich, home foreclosures, job losses and a middle-class squeeze, back in Washington House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats met behind closed doors on a plan to raise taxes and cut food stamp money to protect billions of dollars for agribusiness, a sector of the economy that is booming. The negotiators agreed Tuesday to find $10 billion in extra money in a last-ditch effort to save the farm bill, once seen as an opportunity to reform commodity programs and...

It feels almost like willed ignorance. It feels as if we're all playing a game because playing a game is more fun than facing the facts. And, of course, thanks to a combination of factors, we haven't had to face the facts for a while now. But eventually, facts will out. I hear the Democratic candidates talking about the good things, getting our schools back on track, helping veterans get continuing medical care, investing in renewable energy, getting our national parks back in shape, expanding protections against the importing of bad toys and making our harbors safe: all good things,...

Amid anguished cries, lawmakers make some tough choices while ducking others - California's Legislature has done such a fine job of creating diminished expectations that the emergency budget cuts it approved Friday actually resembled responsible governance.Lawmakers had to act. If they hadn't, the state was in danger of running out of money in this fiscal year. Thus the Assembly and Senate approved $1 billion in spending cuts and payment deferrals to ensure the state remained solvent through July.There was great gnashing of teeth in the Senate Friday as lawmakers mulled the options. Some Republicans sounded like Democrats, decrying cuts to...

ANNAPOLIS -- Frederick County's lawmakers serving on state budget committees are preparing for between $100 million and $300 million in cuts to the governor's proposed fiscal 2009 budget. The cuts come just a few months after lawmakers met in special session, passing tax increases and pushing for a skinnier budget as a way to address an anticipated $1.5 billion deficit. Delegate Galen Clagett, a Democrat representing Frederick County, attended a meeting with other leaders of the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday and said they plan to cut between $100 million and $300 million to make up for projections in revenue...

The speaker says he could support 'fair compromise' of tax increases, spending cuts. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said Tuesday that he could support raising revenue – including selective taxes on the wealthy – to help bridge the state's projected $14.5 billion shortfall.Núñez said that a "fair compromise" would be to solve half of the money crisis with revenue increases and the other half with spending cuts.The Los Angeles Democrat, speaking at a lunch meeting of the Sacramento Press Club, said he could support the 50-50 approach used by Gov. Pete Wilson when faced with a similar budget crisis in the...

The aptly named Republican "retreat" last weekend at the ritzy Greenbrier resort in West Virginia should have included Democrats because Republicans are behaving just like them. There was President Bush arguing for his "bipartisan stimulus package" and supporting government handouts with borrowed money. Republicans can always cut a bipartisan deal if they behave like Democrats. House Republican Leader John Boehner implored his fellow Republicans to "sacrifice" by agreeing to a one-year moratorium on earmarks to "prove" Republicans are the party that can fix Washington. Someone should have pointed out to Mr. Boehner that the word "fix" is also used to...

I am disappointed in the tactics and statements of almost all the presidential candidates, both Democrats and Republicans. My grandmother used to say that you can tell just as big a lie with a half-truth and sometimes a bigger one. Take the half-truths said about Mike Huckabee and taxes. I lived in Arkansas when he was the governor. He did away with the marriage tax penalty and the capital gains tax on the sale homes. He doubled Arkansas' standard deduction and the child care tax credit. He slashed the capital gains tax for both individuals and businesses. In 2001, Mike...

Apparently, small government Republicans [Huckabee’s] aides are wary of New Hampshire. “It’s all no tax, no government there,” said Bob Wickers, a top strategist. “It’s not ideal.” But they believe that the message of economic anxiety that he preaches will help in Michigan’s primary on Jan. 15 and in states in the South, which have high poverty rates in addition to strong groups of social conservatives.” Mike Huckabee is skipping New Hampshire because it’s too fiscally conservative. Instructive, yes? Huckabee’s brand of identity politics is as dangerous as anyone else’s - after nearly eight years of a fiscally liberal Republican...

AUSTIN — The state's new $5 surcharge for strip club visitors will not violate the clubs' First Amendment free speech rights, state officials argued in a court brief filed in advance of a court hearing. The new fee, which was approved this year by the Texas Legislature, is set to take effect on Jan. 1. It's expected to raise about $44 million to be dispersed for sexual assault prevention programs and health care for the uninsured. A state district judge was scheduled today to consider a request made by a group of strip clubs to delay the fee. The Texas...

A quick note about my various Huckabee postings. As many (most) readers know, I am supporting Fred Thompson in the Republican primary (and wrote an article explaining why in NRODT). This is not the reason why I have been posting so much that is critical of Huckabee, however. Rather, I find Huckabee's record and various positions to be particularly problematic, far more so than any of the other candidates. (Note I have not been posting items critical of the other candidates, even though I prefer Fred.) In my view, Huckabee is a big government populist liberal, not a conservative. In...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Governor Jennifer Granholm says the most important thing she learned this year is she's not ever going to raise taxes again to deal with any budget shortfalls.

It is very rare, if not unheard of, to catch a presidential candidate, especially a Republican, in the act of saying he or she would be willing to sign any tax increase that lawmakers wished for. But that's what happened to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has rocketed to a statistical tie in Iowa with Mitt Romney, largely as a result of the former Baptist minister's support from evangelical voters in the nation's first caucus state. The Club for Growth, an effective tax-cut advocacy group, has been on Huckabee's back almost from the beginning of his candidacy, sending out...

Mike Huckabee appeared tonight on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and once again tried to laugh away his record as governor of Arkansas. Huckabee should stop cracking jokes about raising taxes and start taking responsibility for his actions. Excerpted quotes from Mike Huckabee on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, November 29, 2007 HUCK CHECK #1 : Huckabee claimed that if you dismantle the IRS and implement the Fair Tax, make "the federal government operate more efficiently...[and] get rid of a $10 billion industry." In reality, Huckabee's plan replaces one government bureaucracy with another. * Reality: "It is...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Mike Huckabee's presidential rivals are pointing to chinks in his record as Arkansas' governor - from ethics complaints to tax increases to illegal immigration and his support for releasing a rapist who was later convicted of killing a Missouri woman. The Republican presidential candidate has plenty to champion from his 10 1/2 years as governor - including school improvements and health insurance for the children of the working poor. But his record has rough edges, and Huckabee has a habit of playing fast and loose with it. Other campaigns for the GOP nomination, watching Huckabee's...

If Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) Could Enact All Of Her Campaign Proposals, Taxpayers Would Be Faced With Financing $773 Billion In New Spending Over One White House Term. Keep reading for a breakdown of her proposals: Updated October 17, 2007: Hillary Proposed $1.75 Billion A Year In State Grants For Paid Family Leave And Child Care Programs; Multiplied By 4 Years = $7 Billion. “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton … proposed giving $1 billion in grants to states that enact paid family leave laws and said that she would support requiring employers to provide workers seven days’ annual paid sick leave....

Full-Fledged Mugging of Taxpayers Happens In Dark of Night ANNAPOLIS—At about 2:30am, the Maryland General Assembly concluded its Special “Tax Hike� Session with a nearly $7 billion tax hike on Maryland families over the course of the next four years. Following a pattern of operating in the shadows and out of the light of day, the Democrat leadership again conducted these important votes and backroom deals in the dark of night. The final tax package would increase the sales tax by 20%, would apply the sales tax to computer services, would significantly increase the income tax structure, would increase the...

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- California's budget picture has deteriorated significantly since the summer, with the state now facing a nearly $10 billion shortfall. Wednesday's report by the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst confirms speculation that a slowing housing market and other factors have eroded revenue in the state's annual spending plan. As recently as August, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger touted his plan as a balanced budget.

The fix appears to be in, and Maryland taxpayers should get ready for another fleecing, courtesy of the "emergency" session of the General Assembly called by Gov. Martin O'Malley. Assuming the tax increases go through, everyone should remember the sorry performances of these five Maryland Democratic senators who tried to pretend that they are anti-tax while helping Senate President Mike Miller ram through tax increases: Rona Kramer (Montgomery); Edward DeGrange (Anne Arundel); John Astle (Anne Arundel); Bobby Zirkin (Baltimore County); and Roy Dyson (St. Mary's). These five lawmakers last week voted to help get Mr. Miller the the bare-minimum 29...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 11/13/2007 Pelosi: ‘Given His Dismal Record, President Bush in No Position to Lecture Congress About Fiscal Responsibility’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in response to a speech in Indiana this afternoon by President Bush in which he compared Congress to “a teenager with a new credit card.” Below the Speaker’s statement is a fact sheet comparing the President and Congress’ fiscal records. "If President Bush applied for a credit card, any bank in America would turn him down as a bad credit risk. He...

Transportation commission proposes levying 10 cents a gallon on fuel to help curb greenhouse gases - In a proposal that fell on deaf ears in Sacramento last year, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's staff is recommending legislation that would make a gas tax a "fee," and thus make it easier to prevail at the ballot box. Only this year, transportation officials say, the idea could be more palatable as but one arrow in a quiver aimed at reducing the Bay Area's contribution to global warming. Under legislation that went into effect in 1997, the MTC has the authority to put a...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Bush scolded lawmakers on Tuesday, saying the Democratic-led Congress hasn't "seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it." Bush, who has been criticized himself for government spending increases, chided Congress for failing to send him any appropriations bills even though the government started a new budget year on Oct. 1. "The leadership that's on the Hill now can't get that done," Bush said, standing outside the White House with Republican leaders. Bush also warned Congress not to bother sending him another version of a children's health insurance bill that he...

Just in time for Halloween comes House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel – henceforth known as Count Rangula – with a bill that would suck more blood from the American taxpayers. Like Dracula the vampire, Count Rangula is cagey about his intentions, luring his victims (us) with promises of "reforming" the tax code. Raise your hand if you believe we are not turning enough of our income over to government. Raise your other hand if you think government is too small and spends too little. Tax revenues are at a record high, and the deficit is shrinking under...

AUSTIN — When Texas accountants closed the books on the 2007 budget period, the state had an unexpected $1.5 billion in unspent money, Comptroller Susan Combs told lawmakers Tuesday. The ending balance for the 2007 fiscal year, which closed Aug. 31, was $8.5 billion, up from the $7 billion expected when Combs earlier this year set her biennial revenue estimate. Most of the money can't be spent until lawmakers meet again and adopt spending legislation. "The increase was brought about by greater revenues, attributable to strong state economic growth, and lower expenditures, attributable to legislative and agency spending restraint," Combs...

(AP) OTTAWA, Ill. -- Barack Obama said Saturday that health care and other domestic needs will be neglected until the Iraq war ends, and that he had the judgment and ideas to lead the country. "When this war is over, we can finally get back to facing the challenges we face here at home, the challenges you're grappling with every day," the Democratic presidential candidate told about 600 people at a union conference. The first-term Illinois senator said the war now costs between $10 billion and $12 billion a month. He noted that President Bush had vetoed a $35 billion...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats have "earned the mantle of fiscal responsibility" since taking control of Congress in January by paying for their priorities. "One hundred percent of the bills" have been paid for, she told a conference of the Associated Press Managing Editors. She estimated that 80 percent of the costs have been covered by spending reductions elsewhere in the budget. Pelosi, D-Calif., contrasted the Democrats' performance with what she said was Republican abandonment of the pay-as-you-go principle while they and President Bush shared power. "A projected surplus of $5.6 trillion became a budget deficit of...

Just call him Obama Hood. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing a tax plan to take money out of deep pockets and give it back to the working class and seniors in the form of tax breaks. The proposal amounts to more than $80 billion in annual tax cuts. Obama's campaign said he was set to announce the plan in Washington today as part of a broader push to strenghen his economic platform. Major initiatives would include giving 150 million Americans a $500 tax credit, increasing tax advantages for homeowners, and doing away with income taxes for senior citizens...

Republicans cry foul as revenue estimate jumps and Ritter vows prudence. Gov. Bill Ritter's property-tax freeze for schools is expected to bring in $114 million across Colorado next year - well over the $48 million calculated when the legislature approved the proposal. Republicans who fought against the school-funding plan last spring were crying outrage at the $66 million difference Thursday... A group of statehouse Republicans asked Ritter in a letter Thursday "why the estimates were so off in the first place" and said he should end the policy. "We hope you will agree with us to end policies that kick...

In the last days of the Oregon legislature, the Democrats are resurrecting seemingly dead bills to raise taxes. Not content with spending a huge budget surplus, they want MORE, MORE. HJR 15 is being passed to get voters to eliminate the Constitutional Double Majority required in elections to raise taxes. Once that passes, the next bill spells disaster. HB 3051 allows local school districts to hold their special elections to implement local income and sales taxes. http://www.leg.state.or.us/07reg/measpdf/hb3000.dir/hb3051.intro.pdf Here are some bills being pushed: HB 3052 creates a state 1% property sales tax. If you are planning on selling property, be...