In looooong session, Jerry Brown is unable to muster 2 GOP votes

by Brian Leubitz

If you are like me, and follow a lot of Capitol reporters on twitter, you will see a slew of tweets ending around 2AM last night.  That would be because that is when the Senate finally closed its day and finished up this Legislative session.

But through all that, Brown’s big last-minute goal went down in the Senate:

Gov. Jerry Brown’s corporate tax package failed to clear the state Senate in the final hours of the legislative session.

The plan, contained in Senate Bill 116, fell five votes short of passage, by a final tally of 22-15.

The Democratic governor had proposed changing a corporate tax formula to require that multi-state companies calculate their tax liability based on the portion of sales in California. The roughly $1 billion expected to be raised annually through the change, mostly from out-of-state companies, would have been directed to specific tax breaks, including a sales tax exemption on manufacturing equipment. (SacBee)

The Governor wasn’t even able to hold all the Democrats and one (I’m trying to figure out who) actually voted no.  The question now for Brown is how he gets anything done with a Republican minority that understands their one (and only) power to block revenue legislation.  But, of course, even if the Senate is 2/3 Democrats next year, we now know that is no guarantee of anything.