Rotten “Low Hanging Fruit”
The California Tax Reform Association claims to have the formula to solve the budget crisis. The association issued a list of ten tax increases, which it claims will raise more than $20 billion dollars. According to the group, these tax increases will have little impact on economic recovery, so the governor and legislature should immediately go after the listed taxes, which the organization described as “low hanging fruit.”
The problem is this ”low hanging fruit” is rotten. Devouring it will lead to economic illness and the death of jobs.
The rotten fruit list includes tax increases on business property, oil, tobacco, alcohol, businesses, vehicle licenses, top income brackets and more.
All these tax increases and no damage to an economic recovery? These must be magical tax increases.
“The Default of Walters and Skelton”
George Skelton and Dan Walters are terrific journalists who already have forgotten more than I’ll ever know about California politics and government. Which is why I was shocked to see the two columnists make the same false and highly irresponsible claim in recent weeks.
Their error? Suggesting that there’s a real risk of the state defaulting on its debts.
Walters went off the deep end first. Writing on Nov. 20 about the state’s persistent budget deficits, Walters predicted a bitter budget battle next year that would end in default: “This will be one of the bloodiest skirmishes the Capitol has ever seen – with the only option being that the most populous state in the nation defaults on its debts.”
Skelton has raised the specter of default twice — on Nov. 23 (“Be grateful if California can avoid defaulting on its state bonds for the first time ever”) and again last week, with a line in a column about Gov. Schwarzenegger’s failures: “For Schwarzenegger to survive his final year, of course, the state must survive. That means no more IOUs, let alone defaulting on bonds.”
The Jobs Initiative – Suspend AB32
When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB32 [assembly bill 32] in 2006, California’s unemployment rate was a modest 4.8%. This past Friday we learned that it now stands at 12.5%.
AB32 requires a massive reordering of our state’s economy and massive tax increases to pay for these shifts. It includes a provision for it to be suspended if our state faces economic hardships, and that time has come.
The governor refuses to order a suspension, so I have teamed up with Ted Costa of People’s Advocate and Congressman Tom McClintock to give the people of California an opportunity to make this important decision.
On November 25, 2009, we submitted the California Jobs Initiative to the Attorney General for title & summary. We will begin gathering signatures to qualify this measure for the November 2010 ballot in mid-January. If you would like to help, go to www.danlogue.com.