Editor’s note: Here’s what Rich Ulery of the local GOP Central Committee is writing on the local GOP website about Gov. Jerry Brown’s attempt to extend tax cuts. He ignores any GOP politician’s role (including our GOP governors) for California’s budget deficit problem. The highly partisan analysis reminds me why a growing number of people are registering as “Decline to State.” They’re done with party politics.
To Rich’s credit, he’s not a verbal ‘bombthrower’ or name caller like the minority of vocal locals who often fill the blogosphere. Over the years I never viewed political decision-making as “black or white,” or akin to rooting for a sports team. The world is too complex now, and different approaches and philosophies are required at different times. It’s no different from the business world. Some other perspectives to what Rich wrote are here and here.
“After reviewing the Democrat party’s justification for placing the tax extension initiative before the voters this June, I was reminded about a story my son told me a few years ago. He was in a store with my granddaughter when he firmly told her that there was no money for an item she wanted. Her response was ‘well, just go to the ATM!’ The Democrat Party has controlled the California legislature for the past half century. And what has that control given us? A $26B deficit, some of the highest personal income, sales, and corporate tax rates in the nation, unfunded billions in pension liabilities to our public employees, a dismal state credit rating, one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, an anti-business and regulatory environment that is driving employers out of the state, failing public schools, and a crumbling state infrastructure.
“The Democrat answer to their sorry management record is typical – go back to the taxpayers for more tax dollars! This despite the fact that the $10 billion tax increase imposed in 2009 was intended to be temporary, and California voters summarily rejected a one to two-year extension of those tax increases by a 2 to 1 margin a mere two years ago. Now the Democrats want the voters to decide on a five-year extension after they firmly said no to a two-year extension. If nothing else, I must admire the Democrats’ persistence – just keep going back to the voters year after year, hoping against hope that they’ll ultimately change their mind.”
The rest of the article is here.
Filed under: Uncategorized
All one has to look at is Ahnold’s record to know the GOP is full of Koch,Rove and Norquist hot,bibulous,lying nonsense. There isn’t ONE business or corporation,or Bush that Ahnold obseqiously and cravenly DIDN’T Bend Over For. Now that he and his minions have been caught kissing the netherparts of the top 2% they whine about Governor Brown. Like Steinberg said about the negotiations with manchild Dutton and the GOP, ” What do you want now after all this, a freakin pony too”? The GOP greed has bent over and sucked California dry because of it. Get a clue Rich…even the tea people are starting to…Kate
Also if you go back “half a century,” as this commentary does, you’ve got many other California GOP “electeds,” including several Governors, on the hook.
Jeff,
Kate is right about both Wilson and Arnold being in bed with the corporate interests, which as I pointed out yesterday gave us BOTH MTBE and ethanol, which she loves, NOT.
However, I don’t know how you argue with Rich’s logic that the Democrats have controlled the legislature for over 40 years and that is where the fiscal buck stops.
NO one has challenged them since the first Deukmejian who made pretty good progress until the business boys bought the second Deukmejian.
John
John,
Thanks for acknowledging the role that Arnold, Pete and George played. Rich didn’t. Just focusing on who controls the legislature is overly simplistic.
John,
You’re wrong about the MTBE issue as this was approved by the State in the very early 1980′s
The oil companies should pay for the mess we find ourselves in now. The oil companies knew what would happen, but they used MTBE anyway because it was cheaper and easier for them at the time.
Attorneys on the forefront in investigating and pursuing cases against the oil companies for MTBE contamination, have learned through discovery that many of the oil companies knew full well by the early 1980s that MTBE was especially dangerous when it was released into the environment. They knew that it would take only a tiny amount of MTBE to contaminate an aquifer, once the MTBE got into the groundwater, it would be difficult and expensive to get back out. And they knew that MTBE would get into the environment if they put it in the gasoline because they knew that there were hundreds of thousands of leaking underground storage tanks across the country.
The simple truth was that this information on the problems with MTBE was hidden by the oil companies until the late 1990′s, when problems began happening in a way that they could not argue with the proof.
Brad,
I think we are in agreement here: It WAS the BIG oil companies that pushed this plan under the guise of being “green.” I still remember the ARCO ads.
At first I thought why on earth would oil companies want all this added expense and danger and only later realized that ONLY the BIG companies could afford the upgrades which meant the little guys went away along with the compensation they provided. Anyone remember the good old days when we had “gas wars?”
The small independent gas station is also going the way of the Dodo bird because they cannot afford all the fancies nozzles and tanks. More regulations that the BIG boys fought for because they knew what would happen.
John
The assmption that because the California Legislature has had a Democratic majority for years, that this has been the major factor in the financial problems of the state today, is a fallacy, and I am really tired of the GOP using this as an excuse. In a state which has the voter initiative as a part of its legislative process, which California has had for many years, the legislative elected body and governor do not have that kind of control. The initiative process has its good side, and its bad: whereas voters can step in any time to change decisions they don’t like made by elected officials, the process also gives a huge advantage to special interests with enough money to pay petition signature gatherers and fund PR campaigns.
If any major legislation in California over the past 50 years can be blamed for todays state financial problems, it is Proposition 13, written and funded by the Howard Jarvis tax group, a Republican front organization, which cut state tax revenues drastically, and also gave the state’s minority Legislative Republicans a 1/3 leverage in passing or blocking tax legislation in the state, far beyone what actual numbers merit. Many ordinary home owners, caught up in an era of rapidly increasing real estate values and thus increasing property taxes, voted for Prop. 13 as they saw it as needed for them to stay in their homes, even though the major tax advantage went to business properties, not homes. What is needed to bring California out of its slump is revision of its tax policies, which could involve rewrite or rejection of Prop. 13, or changes in how taxes are determined, perhaps from the use of property as a basis to a more up to date method, possibly tax of services and greater reliance on income tax, since that might be closer to how our economy runs today.
Pat,
Prop 13 was needed to keep folks in their homes and protected many again in the housing boom that just went bust.
BUT here is the interesting thing: IF you take the amount collected BEFORE Prop 13 passed of $10.8 billion in 1977 and adjust it for inflation you get $38 billion which is LESS than what was collected in property taxes last year.
John
Pat, you are sooooo very correct that the initiative process has taken a huge majority of available funds away from ANYONE making spending decisions.
Then, we have a Gazillionaire or two or three or four “buying” or more like trying to buy the Governorship. Should be unconstitutional but not sure that would ever fly. Pipe Dream.
Both Parties do so stupid stuff but it is clear that all the fights over money is a pretty darn small piece of the pie.
Then you have Prop 13, which one can make a case is long over due for either a repeal or adjustment.
But it sure as heck ain’t the State Workers at fault.
All this is besides the point. The fact is that in the multi-trillion dollar California economy a $12 billion tax increase is trivial. The ATM is not empty, it is just that grandpa is cheap, and using the oldest excuse in the books to justify stinginess. Or at least grandpa is avoiding the tougher talk about the nature of priorities. Right now, it appears that Ullery’s priority for California is to let private wealth accumulate, while public debts go unpaid. I don’t quite understand why the Republicans view private and public responsibilities differently, but that seems to be the case.
Exactly Tony…and GOP gramps better wise up and hand sonny boy the keys before he forgets where he puts the keys…because I do believe the vehicle of California is about to get hotwired and sunny Brown is about to bounce with it and NOT gramps…with the pony too…Kate
I’m sorry, but maybe I missed something.
Isn’t the issue whether or not the voters get to decide if they want tax extensions?
It sounds like there are some folks who are scared to death that the voters will repudiate their ideology of government via the “slash and burn” method…….
Along with the fact that the Koch Bros. And Rove have inserted themselves into the California budget vote and their money is greasing the palms of these central valley and northern California GOP wingnut coffers and commercials. These Koch heads and their money are literally standing in the way of Californians ability to even get to VOTE on the tax extensions. It’s horrendously unamerican and just skeezy…its anti-american. Kate
I mean, what exactly are these boys doing in California politics exactly? It reeks of skeezerhood. Kate
It’s a bit like the conversation Steve Frisch and I were having on The Union blog. The “Regressives” don’t want their narrative challenged.
The story they want being told is that ALL taxpayers want to cut government and ALL businesses need to cut wages, pensions, regulations, etc. in order to compete.
It’s pretty clear that they’ll do whatever they can to make sure that version of reality remains unchallenged, including trying to deny the people the right to vote.
So the task (as I see it) is for everyone to call these folks out at every possible turn!
“Why do you want to deny people the right to vote?
“Let the people vote!”
“Why are you stopping the vote?”
“Why are you afraid of freedom?”
Mike,
As to your questions:
The people voted these taxes down just last year.
The people will vote at least twice in 2012 and if the unions or democrats think they will want to raise taxes they can put forward ANOTHER initiative then.
We have regular votes every two years and no one is stopping them.
I am not afraid of freedom, but it could be endangered if the public employee unions who have already bought the Democrat votes get the taxes on a ballot where they can spend something like $50 million convincing people the sky will fall if they are not passed.
I think the better question is why the Democrats are not listening to the voters: They said no to the taxes and gave the Democrats the power to do a budget with a majority vote, so they are waiting for them to do their job.
John
I’d like the opportunity to vote on how we should deal with the State’s finances this year, before the Legislature walks down the road of irreparable cuts to needed services, for the poorest of the poor.
Considering that we now live in the era of Citizens United (which my guess is that you’re in favor of?) I find the idea that the ability to hold elections on any given topic should somehow be limited (unless of course it’s a multi-gazillionaire’s tax cutting agenda or anti-civil rights proposition) as being, dare I say, disingenuous.
Mike,
You have already had TWO chances: The vote to extend the regressive taxes that Arnold and the Democrats was held last year and you I assume voted YES, but it lost.
There was a measure to repeal the tax breaks that the big corporations got and I assume that you joined me in voting YES on that one, but it lost as well.
Is democracy really just voting over and over again until the result is what you want?
John
John,
You and the republican buddies seem very afraid this vote would not go your way. If the people’s will was reflected when we, as you say, “already voted down these taxes” you would be confident that the democrats and Brown would be taken down a peg and sent to licking their wounds.
But the thing is, you do not show that confidence. The republicans are clearly very afraid of a vote, even in an environment where corporate spending can bury union spending.
You never responded to Tony Waters assertion that CA can afford these taxes and we all know the trouble CA is in.
So what s the deal with you guys? You don’t seem to want to solve this problem unless somehow the conservatives come out on top.
Tim, you nailed it. This is about WINNING. To conservatives this is about beating the opposition. This is about changing our system to a libertarian paradise, where we all worship Ayn Rand’s twisted vision of selfishness. This is about tearing down the last 100 years of government and returning to the 19th century. Nothing else will do.
Tim,
Actually you missed some important details: Governor Brown has spared the two most wealthy state employee unions [prison guards & teachers] who will put up something like $50 million to get a different outcome. The business community will sit on the sidelines because the governor is NOT raising their taxes with this regressive package that takes REAL money out of the family budget when we can least afford it.
Sorry, I will stay with the little guys on this one.
John
Yeah, Mike…just like ole Daffy in Libya, people like the Koch dealers and Rove need to be told, ” Who made your rich,crazy a%#es the king of anything? You don’t even live here or know what’s going on here in California…we didn’t vote for Kochhead 1 OR 2. We voted for a historically native Californian for Governor who actually has skin in this game, Rove. He likes and knows California. And doesn’t throw his big pants and big pockets around. He walks his walk. And we want to help our home prosper and we have the right and duty to vote! So step off big pants and move away from our rights! Kate
While I agree with your basic philosophy, I’m not sure I’m all that thrilled with our new Governor either, but nevertheless, the issue is “Do the people have the right to vote or not?”
It sounds like the Regressives are saying “No” and if that’s the case then they need to be called out on that and be made to defend it and themselves.
Democracy ensures that the people get the government they deserve. Putting taxes on the ballot is a great way to have a conversation about what we want and how we want to pay for it. However, this process requires decisions based on honesty and adaquate information. My observation is that voters prefer sleezy campaign messages promoting all sorts of social lies in demonic proprotions paid for by wealthy people who will benefit from the tax breaks. Look, everyone, wealthy people aren’t going to spend money influencing your vote unless they are pretty sure you’ll be dumb enough to vote with them so they can run all over you.
It’s time for an honest discussion about what we want and how we are going to pay for it. It’s time to be wary of the rich man with his hand out. It’s time to realize that people get the government they deserve.
I’ll gladly pay my taxes, but not so that the wealthy don’t have to.
Thanks Wanda! Please sign your full name next time. -Jeff
Chevron needs to start paying a severance tax, just like it does in Alaska and a bunch of other states.
John: Is “democracy” demanding that everything “regressives” want be voted upon immediately (when they think they have the votes) or blocked (by any means necessary) when they think they don’t?
Mike,
I think that I explained how regular elections work and I assume that you voted on the measures that I mentioned above so you were not denied your opportunity.
As a side note, it is humorous to see all the “ProDemocracy” folks on this list complaining about the initiative process.
John
I didn’t know that there was a limit on the number of elections the people are entitled too anywhere in the Constitution, John.
Funny, how that works ain’t it?