I’ll admit it, I’m something of a cynic. I was always worried about the budget process and whether we would get the 2 votes necessary for the supermajority. I pretty much knew that the Republicans wouldn’t put straight taxes as an option, but maybe, just maybe, they would consider some sort of deal for an election.<\/p>\n
Well, time’s up on that:<\/p>\n
Gov. Jerry Brown announced this afternoon he halted negotiations with legislative Republicans over a deal to place taxes on the ballot to help resolve California’s remaining $15.4 billion deficit.<\/p>\n
A June election appears to be off the table entirely. Brown is no longer pursuing a two-thirds vote for a June tax election, while Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told reporters he will not pursue a majority-vote option, either.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday, I stopped the discussions that I had been conducting with various members of the Republican party regarding our state’s massive deficit,” Brown said in a statement this afternoon. “The budget plan that I put forth is balanced between deep cuts and extensions of currently existing taxes and I believe it is in the best interest of California. Under our constitution, however, two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the Senate must agree before this matter can be put to the people.”(SacBee<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Governor also sent a letter to Republican Senate Leader Bob Dutton asking him to “get working” on something, and to pair his reform requests down to spending cap, pension reform, and “regulatory reform.” You can view the letter here<\/a>. But in the end, I struggle to see how anything gets done at this point without signatures. It is just unfortunate that now we’re going to have to wait to get that done.<\/p>\n
This is truly a bad day for California, and a sad statement for our government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ll admit it, I’m something of a cynic. I was always worried about the budget process and whether we would get the 2 votes necessary for the supermajority. I pretty much knew that the Republicans wouldn’t put straight taxes as an option, but maybe, just maybe, they would consider some sort of deal for an election.<\/p>\n
Well, time’s up on that:<\/p>\n
Gov. Jerry Brown announced this afternoon he halted negotiations with legislative Republicans over a deal to place taxes on the ballot to help resolve California’s remaining $15.4 billion deficit.<\/p>\n
A June election appears to be off the table entirely. Brown is no longer pursuing a two-thirds vote for a June tax election, while Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told reporters he will not pursue a majority-vote option, either.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday, I stopped the discussions that I had been conducting with various members of the Republican party regarding our state’s massive deficit,” Brown said in a statement this afternoon. “The budget plan that I put forth is balanced between deep cuts and extensions of currently existing taxes and I believe it is in the best interest of California. Under our constitution, however, two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the Senate must agree before this matter can be put to the people.”(SacBee<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n