State Senator Lou Correa has to be wondering if Senate President Don Perata takes input from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. Today the State Senate voted on a budget plan that represents negotiations between Perata and Governor Schwarzenegger. Left out of the process in any meaningful way was Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Senate Republicans. You know what? You can tell. The so-called "compromise budget" is a bad budget, containing as its main eyesore a multi-billion dollar tax sales tax increase that will wallop California’s economy for years.
The plan put forth by the Governor deserves to be voted down outright — but the proposal on the Senate Floor is even worse than the Governor’s — the Governor calls for a three year increase in the sales taxes, followed by a decrease after that to permanently lower the state sales tax over the long haul. While we are dubious that this decrease would ever really occur, Senate Democrats want nothing of it. Their plan hikes the rate for three years, and then returns it back to existing levels.
The "roll" is still being held open in the Senate, where every Democrat except Orange County’s Lou Correa has voted for it, and every Republican has voted against it. Correa was elected on a no-taxes pledge to voters — apparently Correa is not prepared to violate the pledge — certainly not on a throw-away vote.
Senate Republicans should make it clear that there are THREE issues at hand here, and both need to be resolved before Republicans can support a budget. The first is the outrageous tax increases that appear, whether in Democrat plan, the Governor’s plan, or the compromise between those two that the Governor’s has proposed — they have to be off of the table and replaced with cuts.
The second issue, and perhaps most important, is that Republican Senators need to unite in solidarity behind their leader, Senator Cogdill. Senate Republicans should make it clear that it is expected that Perata will negotiate directly with Cogdill, and that the road to any Republican votes goes through Cogdill’s office. Politics is a team sport, and Senate Republicans need to stick together as a team.
Speaking of team sports, this brings me to the last issue. Senate Republicans should not "go up" on any budget until their Assembly Republican colleagues have been brought in and consensus is achieved between both caucuses that the budget is accepted. Not only is there strength in numbers — but whether in the Senate or in the Assembly, Republicans should and must approach this budget issue in a unified manner.
In closing, I did want to point out some positive news. A couple of weeks ago we blogged about the fact that State Senator Roy Ashburn was making noises that he could support the Governor’s tax hike proposal — in some form. Well there were a few floor speeches on this budget proposal today, and Ashburn’s was one of the most strident, and it was clear that much in this proposal would need to change before it was worthy of approval. Our ultimate counsel though, to Ashburn and others, is to rely on the leader to do the negotiating.
To borrow a line history — "United we stand and divided we fall."
In the meantime, "the call" remains open and undoubtedly somewhere in the building, Lou Correa is being heavily pressured by Perata — and you can be sure that the Governor and his team are looking to find any turncoat Republican who would be willing to literally leave his colleagues in their foxhole, and surrender. I believe our team is strong — too strong to be coaxed into a vote for a budget that raises taxes on Californians.
This bad budget should die on the vine — and then perhaps negotiations can actually start between Perata and Cogdill.