GOP Leadership responds to Governor Jerry Brown’s May Revision of his Proposed Budget…

Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton and Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Bob Huff (jointly)
“Senate Republicans believe Governor Brown is moving in the right direction by making education and law enforcement funding a top priority. We also applaud the governor for embracing Republican proposals of paying down state debt and providing some job-creation incentives.

But the May Revise goes too far on taxes and not far enough on reforms.

Rather than curbing government spending, the governor’s revised budget still sets the state on a course of excessive spending growth in the future – spending that relies on tax increases.

With $6.6 billion in new revenues, Republicans are right – we don’t need, and it’s ridiculous to ask voters for, five years of new taxes.

Clearly the California economy is trying to recover, which makes it critical that the state budget include reforms that Senate Republicans have been seeking from day one – a hard spending cap, pension reform and business-regulation relief.

The Senate Republicans’ long-terms solutions provide the stability small businesses need to grow and create jobs.”

Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway
“In our ‘Roadmap to a No Tax Increase Budget,’ Assembly Republicans showed that we can protect funding for the classroom and law enforcement without raising taxes.  We call upon the Governor to stop trying to raise people’s taxes and start working across party lines on a no-tax increase budget compromise.  Protecting our core priorities, reforming state government and bringing back private sector jobs – without raising taxes — must continue to be our focus as we work to get California back on track.”

Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chairman Jim Nielsen
“The news that our budget deficit continues to shrink and that California continues to take in unexpected tax revenue is further proof that we don’t need to impose tens of billions in higher taxes on overburdened taxpayers to balance the budget and protect core priorities.  Governor Brown today took a baby step forward by eliminating one year of his proposed tax increases, but he still proposes more than $50 billion in higher taxes on Californians to fund bigger government with no serious reform. I cannot approve of a budget which holds to the dangerous realignment plan that will put our citizens at risk and which increases the size of government by 31 percent over the next three years.”

Board of Equalization Member George Runner

“Overtaxed Californians will find little to cheer in the Governor’s revised budget proposal.

Despite the Governor’s concession to postpone higher income taxes for a year, he continues to push for legislative approval of higher sales taxes and car taxes this year.

And although the Governor dropped his effort to abolish enterprise zones—and the jobs they create—he continues to miss the big picture: Californians need jobs, not higher taxes.

Our best hope for new revenues isn’t higher taxes, but new jobs fueled by a recovering economy. Unfortunately, the Governor has yet to truly lift a finger in the fight for California jobs.”

California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro

“While Brown has made a step in the right direction, he continues to offer only half-measures. If cutting 43 commissions makes sense, what about the other 260? If reductions in spending are necessary, why is he increasing spending 5 percent? He claims concern about a “wall of debt” but makes no mention of massive unfunded pension liabilities which threatens education beyond repair.”

Rather than keep his campaign promise to make hard choices, Brown is breaking his campaign promise not to raise taxes without a vote of the people. The bottom line is that Brown’s demand to increase spending while we have a deficit means that he still doesn’t understand that we can no longer spend beyond our means.”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Blog Posts.