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SACRAMENTO, CA– This week, Governor Brown set forward his ideas for tackling California’s budget problems in his eighth State of the State address. While Assembly Republicans offer our hand of cooperation, there’s no doubt we have a different path to solve the state’s fiscal crisis.
There is zero voter appetite for tax hikes. Beyond that, it’s wrong to feed big government by increasing the tax burden on California families in a down economy.
Governor Brown has proposed more than $14 billion in tax increases over the next year and a half. Less than 2 years ago, voters opposed these same tax hikes on a 2 to 1 basis. Our economic picture has not improved since then. In fact, 2.3 million Californians are still jobless – that’s 400,000 more Californians who are out of work since the tax hikes were originally enacted. Therefore, it’s highly unlikely voters somehow will find the same tax hikes appealing now.
According to the Governor’s own Department of Finance, the proposed across-the-board tax increases will cost the average family more than $1,040 each year. Every time I go to churches and grocery stores, I talk to hardworking Californians struggling to make ends meet and they tell me that they can’t afford higher taxes during these tough economic times.
Lawmakers must downsize big government and prioritize the most critical services. Putting tax increases on the ballot that will ultimately fail only delays the inevitable difficult spending reductions that are necessary to tackle our structural deficit.
We must take action to prevent future chronic budget problems by reining in soaring public pension costs and autopilot spending. We must also end burdensome regulations that prevent businesses from hiring more Californians.
Together, we can restore the people’s faith in government and end this fiscal roller coaster.
Click here to watch my video response to the Governor’s State of the State speech.
Taxes will always be too high. Until we are willing to live as a third world country, they will remain that way. Streamlining the process, removing the pork and making government more responsible and efficient is the goal of the citizenry. Repeating the rhetoric while blaming others is the chant of the politicians. In the meantime there are no solutions. What’s the plan? Lower taxes, get out of the way? We tried that. It didn’t work for the majority. Not even a decent size minority. Only a small percentage benefited. Without trickery or dictatorship such a system won’t work because it won’t last. As a result we hand out trinkets in the form of welfare and social security to pacify the masses. Baaa!
Same book, different cover.
The DMV should be drastically cut in funding and downsized to the models of Arizona or Washington States. The DMV is too far-reaching into peoples lives.
The fees have no bounds.
This month my vehicle fees are as follows:
Registration Fees: $57.00
License Fees: $99.00
Weight Fees: $24.00
County/Districts Fees: $9.00 (these are reasonable and okay)
Total Assessment for Late Payment: $321.00
How about a Kiss My Ass Fee.
The DMV is a gigantic out-of control and self-serving bureaucracy that just keeps growing and needs to be feed.
That will be a additional cynic fee $314.00 please.