There isn’t much point in my expending a lot of time this morning chastising Senate and Assembly Democrats for their plans, this morning, to try to stick Californians with billions of dollars in new taxes, using some scheme where they brazenly attempt to navigate around the State Constitution’s requirement for a 2/3 vote to raise taxes. Through sleight of hand and bizarre terminology, Democrats are planning to hike the state’s income, gas, and car taxes (and that’s not all) — and do it with a majority vote (Republican legislators have appropriately and boldly said NO to any tax increases to solve a chronic overspending problem).
It seems to me that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the one in the spotlight here. The Governor has already called for the legislature to increase taxes by billions of dollars as part of a package that he put forward designed to close the overspending gap not only with spending cuts but also with new taxes. Yeah, we get that. It’s disappointing, but we get it.
But this Proposition 13 end-run that is being quarterbacked by Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass goes directly to a more fundamental issue — while the Governor may be advocating that Republicans vote to increase taxes, does he believe that it is morally or legally correct to participate in a scheme to push aside the super-majority vote requirement for raising taxes? The one put into place by a vote of the people?
Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, in a column featured on the FlashReport this morning, makes it clear that this proposal is the equivalent of "shredding the State Constitution" — and says that these end-runs to Proposition 13 will end up being challenged in court.
But the key here is that voters elected a Republican Governor to ensure that this kind of outrageous attack on the rights of taxpayers would be stopped inside of the State Capitol, with a veto pen.
Arnold Schwarzenegger only has a little over two years left as Governor. He may be starting to worry about his legacy I suppose. Facilitating this kind of blatant Constitutional violation is not the legacy he wants — blasting Proposition 13 into tiny little pieces.
While the temptation may be great to sign this package when it gets to his desk, especially if Democrats aquiensce to a number of tertiary requests of the Governor on what he calls "economic stimulus" issues (we argue that the onerous new taxes will overpower any of the positive impacts of these side deals), the Governor should and must stand up for Proposition 13, and for taxpayers.
It was the intention of the voters of California that there be a very high burdon to impose new or higher taxes upon them — in order to make sure that such an action was truly a measure of last resort. It was a statement in support of a limited government form of government that is the hallmark of the United States of America.
Hopefully the Governor’s respect for the voters, and understanding of the need to follow the rules as set out in the Constitution, will win the day and he will reject this political manouver by those who see this as not only a tremendous opportunity to raise taxes today, but as the opening of the flood gates for a whole lot more to come…
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