It’s only a matter of time before Senator Abel Maldonado breaks caucus ranks and goes up on the budget, providing the third needed GOP vote. In his words, there are "no sweeteners," as of yet, but that is presently being worked out. Ain’t politics grand?

My prediction: It will be over tonight.

Once the respective party leaders realized there was no longer any hope for an aye vote out of Senator Dave Cox, the focus turned to Maldonado. Sometime after the Senate recessed late this morning, emissaries went to his office to grab him for discussions. Unlike the Assembly in lockdown on the Floor, the Senate was in an honor system situation, but Maldonado couldn’t be located and his office was locked with the lights out. The knocking on the office door went to no avail.

What’s more, a search of the Capitol garage indicated his car was gone. The buzz quickly spread that the shrewd Maldo was hiding out, knowing the longer no one could find him, the more he could up the ante with "sweeteners."

Yet, sometimes all the conspiracy theories in the world amount to nothing. The Senator had not left the… Read More

In the so-far-unsuccessful quest to find enough Republican votes to pass the budget monstrosity, the focus has been on termed-out legislators. One would assume that the reasoning for this is that these members won’t be seeking re-election in two or four years and therefore voting to raise constituents’ taxes won’t come up in a campaign. But what about any future campaigns for higher office? Are these lawmakers the rare breed that has no ambition for higher offices?

Even if they’re satisfied with their “service” thus far, maybe these members should be worried about even finishing the current term. When word leaked that Senator Abel Maldonado might be caving on the budget vote, a web site was purchased with the address RecallMaldonado.com. Considering the success of past recalls for mismanaging the state government, Senator Maldonado might want to reconsider voting for this particular tax-increasing budget. As of this post, RecallAshburn.com was still available…

Registrant: MAPA Strategies

5235 Mission Oaks Blvd Suite 1000 Camarillo,… Read More

Word is Senator Maldonado has cut a deal, and the Senate Republicans are being briefed on it momentarily… Read More

With the State Senate adjourning for the night, a $14.4-billion package of outrageous tax hikes remains precariously close to passage. This got me thinking about how good a thing it is that California doesn’t have certain tools the federal government has.

Things like simple-majority legislative approval for tax increases, or its own currency. With control of money supply, the feds are currently preparing to try to spend our way out of a recession with money they don’t have. Of course California has tried that, in a way, by borrowing just to get by. This has resulted in postponing structural reforms to the point that California’s tainted credit will limit further borrowing.

So what other options does California have? Well, there’s tax increases, which are only an option when approved by the voters or two-thirds of the Legislature. Yet even the federal government realizes that increasing taxes can have destructive effects on a weakened economy.

The other tool California government still has is budgetary and governance reform. If state leaders had the will – inspired by the threat of bankruptcy perhaps – they could fundamentally… Read More

Freshman Assemblyman (and fellow FR blogger) Curt Hagman released the following statement about his stance on the staggering new tax increases in the budget proposal:

“California’s economy is in shambles. Businesses, jobs and taxpayers keep leaving the state. According to the Employment Development Department (EDD), on January 1, 2009 there are 184,500 (8%) more employees on the government payroll than on January 1, 2001. Over those same eight years, private sector employment is up only 33,600 (0.2%).This means that the public sector accounts for 85 percent of the overall growth in California over the last eight years.

Even before an estimated $6.4 billion in business tax increases from last year’s budget, California employers already paid taxes that were 20 percent more than the national average. The national population of millionaire households grew by 5.9% in 2007, Los Angeles County lost about 7000 of these households. Orange and San Diego Counties lost millionaire households as well.

Maricopa County in neighboring Arizona gained 23,000 new millionaire households in the same time period. Why? Arizona’s top marginal… Read More

This just in from Grover Norquist, Prsident of Americans for Tax Reform…

State Senator Dave Cox, who has been talked about as one of three potential AYE votes for the $14++ billion tax package, has apparently filed some amendments at the desk to the Big Five Big Tax plan. Contents of those amendments? UNKNOWN.

That said, Senators Dave Cogdill and Roy Ashburn are presumably ready to support the package. Coincidentally, the two of them are off of the floor right now.

So all eyes are now on the Sacramento Area Senator — Cox.

In the meantime, is there enough solidarity in the Assembly Republican Caucus not to JAM the process. We’ll see how this goes!

As Drudge would report… Developing…… Read More

3:30 PM Update: The Governor’s Office has responded to Zycher’s observations below, and that response can be found here.

As we rush speedily into a vote tonight on a "Big-5" produces budget plan that includes nearly $15 billion in assorted tax increases, one of the major "concessions" that is in the plan, to "sweeten it" for GOP support is the placing of a Spending Limit Initiative on the ballot (though we note that the Limit, if it passes, also extends the tax increases).

One of the policy experts on economics and state finances that I look to in this area is Dr. Benjamin Zycher of the Pacific Research Institute. Zycher was asked by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to review the final language.

… Read More