There is not even one vote in the Assembly Republican Caucus to raise taxes. Period.
I keep reading, on occasion, that every Republican in the State Assembly but one has pledged not to raise taxes. And while that is true, it doesn’t do justice to Republican Assemblyman Roger Niello. I have spoken with this man, and I think it is more likely that I will register as a Democrat than he will support a tax increase.
The confusion, if you want to call it that, stems from the fact that last year when all of Niello’s colleagues signed the Americans for Tax Reform "No New Taxes" pledge, in which each signer commits that they will oppose any attempts to raise taxes on their constituents. Everyone signed it but Niello.
But Niello’s decision not to sign was not because he ever envisions supporting a tax increase, but due to a philosophy about taking "pledges" — he just doesn’t think he should sign them.
But he is not alone. There are a lot of politicians who, for one reason or another don’t want to sign pledges. For the purposes of this blog post, I will simply use California GOP Congressman John Campbell as an example. He will not sign pledges such as ATR’s No New Taxes pledge. Yet, Campbell is one of the most conservatives members of the House (he gave the only GOP floor speech against the bipartisan "stimulus" package) — and John would NEVER support a tax increase.
Today, Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters makes yet another references to the pledge signers and the exception, saying: It would take a two-thirds legislative vote to raise taxes and all but one of the Legislature’s Republicans have signed their names to a no-new-taxes pledge.
Salivating big-government liberals should not spend too much time courting Niello’s vote for enlarging the size of California state government — it’s just not there.