I am pleased to offer this Guest Commentary from longtime FR reader Alyse Fulbright. Fulbright (pictured to the right holding the sign) was one of over 10,000 activists who rallied in Fullerton on Saturday to protest the recent passage of the largest tax increase in California history, as well as to decry the legislature’s placing Proposition 1A on the ballot which, if passed, would extend those taxes additional years…
Yesterday afternoon, I joined thousands of other Californians at the Tax Revolt in downtown Fullerton. The turnout shocked me, with estimates from 8,000 to 15,000 in attendance, depending on who you ask. It was a diverse crowd—college students, old folks, families with children—and everybody there was angry about the recently passed budget and the tax increases that came with it.
I saw many creative signs and getups. There were people dressed as pirates and wearing Guy Fawkes masks, those with altered Schwarzenegger campaign signs and t-shirts that read “Recall Arnold” rather than “Join Arnold,” people donning teabags as accessories, and a couple promoting colonics at a local salon (“Sacramento is full of crap; you shouldn’t be” said their sandwich boards). There were folks with Arnold’s head on a stick, crowdgoers wearing stickers stating how much this tax increase will cost them, a life-sized cardboard cutout of Arnold as the Terminator with the words “Tax Terrorist” across his chest, and signs bearing various messages (“Vote Against Incumbents,” “I Am Not California’s ATM,” “Don’t Tax Me, Bro”).
**There is more – click the link**
March 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Great commentary, Alyse. I was so encouraged to see such a large number of people, so diverse and all charged up to fight back against this budget disaster and the tax hikes being dumped on us.
Legislators, ignore this warning sign at your own peril…
March 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am
If you cherish freedom…..never ever vote for a RINO again….they are traitors and worse than liberals for they suck on appendages of government to protect their personal power.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am
I think the major point of John and Ken is that Democrats have at least been honest about raising taxes–they never signed a no-tax pledge and they have never made a secret of their desire for larger revenues (read: taxes).
John and Ken are angry at Republicans because all of them were complicit in accepting higher taxes. None of them made a serious effort to reduce waste and duplication.
Yesterday I heard a spokesman for the teachers union talk about how we now have enough money for either math books or math teachers, but not both. Those are the two choices that the Democrats want us to focus on. Why don’t we get another choice? Like maybe thousands of education bureaucrats in Sacramento?
Democrats say that even if we fire all the bureaucrats it won’t be enough. Fine. But why not try. Why not at least make a serious dent in the bureaucracy before we get to the math teachers vs. math books choice.
I think that is why so much (all) of the KFI anger is focused on Republicans.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Jon. Help me out here. As you know I attended and blogged this event where John or Ken made the following accusation.
“26 of the 29 Republicans voted on Feb 14th for the structure of Prop 1A extending the sales tax increase to June 30,2012.” According to their commentary in front of the huge live audience as well as listeners at home, this vote was before the budget vote. As such they argue that most of the Republicans used this as cover.
Are they incorrect?
March 11th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Larry, based on what I know, the vote on Prop. 1A preceded the vote on the taxes which took place later.
Technically, Proposition 1A as passed has no tax increase language in it. The separate tax increase bill includes increases in taxes for around 4.5 years, but states that if 1A passes, then the final two years are canceled.
Those who voted for the straight cap are trying to make the case that when they voted, there was no tax implication in place.
That said, there is no Republican legislator who did not know that a tax increase was coming down the pike as a part of this budget deal.
So for my part, I would have voted no on any and every part of a bad budget deal, including 1A, with the hopes that if enough of my colleagues did the same, it would bollux up the deal somehow.