Hullabaloo

Friday, December 19, 2008

 
California Screaming

by digby

Schwarzenneger is going to order layoffs and furloughs of all state employees. That ought to be a big help to the recession.

Here's where it stands today:

California's budget mess got messier Thursday as Democratic legislators approved a package of tax increases and spending cuts, Republican legislators threatened to sue over the package's questionable constitutionality and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made the issue moot by promising to veto it.

Democratic legislative leaders then announced lawmakers are going home for the holidays.

That announcement came at the end of a day filled with heated rhetoric, impromptu news conferences and a good deal of waiting around.

The $18 billion Democratic proposal – approved without Republican votes – calls for increases in personal income and sales taxes, the substitution of a 39-cents-per-gallon fee on gasoline in place of the current 26 cents in state taxes, and a new tax on oil production.

It also makes cuts in education, social services and other state programs and slices $657 million from the state's payroll.

The plan, unveiled Wednesday and the third to be voted on by legislators since just before Thanksgiving, is designed to close a bit less than half of a yawning $40 billion deficit in the state's budget over the next 18 months.

Republican legislators blocked both earlier plans by refusing en masse to vote for anything that contained a tax increase. GOP votes were needed because tax hikes require a two-thirds majority in each house.

By concocting a formula that eliminated the gas taxes and replaced them with other taxes and fees, Democrats contended the package could be approved without Republican support.

"Democrats passed a responsible plan that reduced the budget deficit by $18 billion," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "I'm damn proud of what the Legislature did today."

Even before the votes were taken, Republican legislators and several taxpayer and small-business groups threatened to take the plan to court if the governor signed it.

"This is one of the most brazen political moves in California history," said Jonathan Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. "It doesn't even pass the laugh test."

The governor, however, appeared to obviate the need for litigation.

"This package they are sending down does only one thing, and that is punish the people of California," Schwarzenegger told a hastily called news conference. "This fell short on every single level … so I cannot sign this."

California politics is completely broken and one of the main problems is that we have a Republican party that has been reduced to it's most extreme members and the system gives them a veto power over the people's will. That we also have a bucket of warm spit for Governor who thinks he can charm everyone into agreement and inevitably gets rolled and a Democratic party filled with lameass hacks doesn't help.

We. Be. Fucked.

Check out Calitics for reports of the full catastrophe.

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digby 12/19/2008 12:30:00 PM |