Today we are pleased to offer this exclusive Guest Commentary from Republican Assemblyman Roger Niello. Assemblyman Niello is the Vice Chairman of the Assembly’s Budget Committee, and is the lead Republican in the Assembly on Budget issues…
Democrat Budget Increases Taxes and Spending!
By Assemblyman Roger Niello
Democrats showed their true colors this week by passing a budget out of the conference committee that contains nearly $10 billion in tax increases and increases state spending by billions of dollars over last year.
Their plan includes billions of dollars in higher income taxes and higher taxes on California businesses. These tax increases will make it much more expensive to do business in our state, hurt our economy and threaten jobs for many hard-working Californians.
Introducing massive tax increases at a time when our economy is slipping toward a recession and prices for food and gas are higher than ever shows just how out-of-touch Democrats are with Californians.
In addition to tax increases, the Democrat budget proposal also grows health and welfare programs by more than the rate of inflation. Given our $15 billion budget deficit, increasing the size of government and expanding programs is the last thing we should be doing.
Instead, we should be reducing spending. Unfortunately, however, Democrats have rejected many of the suggestions made by Governor Schwarzenegger and Republicans for budget savings.
The only real budget savings they support are cuts to local public safety programs, undercutting the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities. Their budget also includes a dangerous direct discharge parole plan that will let thousands of criminals loose without having to check in with their parole officers. Cutting vital public safety programs and letting thousands off parole is a recipe for disaster.
The reason California is facing budget problems today is not because we are not paying enough in taxes each year, but because the Legislature is spending too much. Tax revenue continues to increase each year, but lawmakers continue to spend more than we take in.
Republicans and Democrats must do the responsible thing and go through the budget line by line to find realistic savings to get the deficit under control. We must also pass long-term budget reforms, such as the spending limit and rainy day fund proposed by Republicans, to prevent future deficits from occurring. The plan put forward by Democrats does nothing to make long-term structural change and instead perpetuates long-term structural spending.
Finding budget savings and living within our means is the only responsible course to save our state from bankruptcy.
We will accomplish little if Democrats continue to “draw a line in the sand” and demand $10 billion in higher taxes on Californians as a “baseline” for any budget agreement. Republicans reject the notion that higher taxes are inevitable and call upon our colleagues to begin serious negotiations immediately.
Republicans agree with Democrats that we must find permanent solutions to our budget problems, and share their desire to work across party lines to get the job done. But we will make very little progress if the only debate Democrats want to have is which taxes to raise and by how much.
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