Posted on Wednesday, 5/20/2009 - 5:15 p.m. PDT — by BBrentwood
All the propositions for new taxes on the BALLOT have failed, ONLY THE PROPOSITION TO CUT STATE LEGISLATORS SALARIES IF THEY DID NOT PASS A BUDGET ON TIME.....
All the scare tactics and boo hoo more money for the schools needed failed miserably....... Now the Governor and are incompetent state legislators led by DEMOCRATS will have to cut, slash and cut some more.
Cut all programs using tax dollars on Illegal Immigrants. Including health care, day care, W.I.C.K....free college education and lowered tuition for non US citizens..
Cut all the feel good social programs
Follow the FEDS lead and start deporting all the illegal aliens that have filled up our prisons and jails costing billions of dollars each year,
There is plenty of graft, waste and abuse of the taxpayers dollars in CA, its time to get serious and do what should have been done years ago.
No state paid vacations overseas for legislators....
Make the job of a State Legislator 'PART TIME", AT HALF THE SALARY....many other states do this and cutting out many of the non-essential new bills that flourish in CA for every topic immaginable. Wastful use of time creating a monolithic beauracracy....bloated with REGULATIONS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS AND TAXPAYERS ALIKE......
Joined: Feb 2004
Current Posts: 2436
"No new taxes, cut the waste!"
Good and bad news from Sacramento
There's good and bad news from Sacramento that you need to know. And there's new, urgent action for you to take below.
First, the good news: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who raised taxes on California families earlier this year, has done an about face and now says "there will be no taxes, just cuts."
And because of California voters' sound defeat of more taxes and borrowing in last month's election, the Republican state legislators seem fairly united against any new tax hikes.
Recently-installed Republican leaders Sam Blakeslee in the Assembly and Dennis Hollingsworth in the Senate say they remain opposed to more taxes and even oppose the new borrowing that Schwarzenegger is proposing.
Among the six out of 44 Republicans (who joined with 75 out of 75 Democrat legislators to raise your taxes in February), only one -- GOP Senator Abel Maldonado -- says he's open to imposing additional taxes and fees upon California families.
Lastly, you'll be glad to know that if you've been financially supporting SaveCalifornia.com or used our Email Lobbying System to demand that Sacramento eliminate massive amounts of waste, you have made a measurable difference because your voice is being heard!
The Governor is embracing our demand of no new taxes, the elimination of duplicative agencies and wasteful commissions, and cutting blatant waste in state prisons. See what SaveCalifornia.com and you have been saying since March 31 and what Schwarzenegger said on June 2.
Now for the bad news: The two Democrat leaders, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, say new taxes are still on the table. We haven't heard any of the 75 Democrats who raised your taxes in February say that they promise not to support new taxes or fees now.
Democrat Curren Price of Los Angeles -- a social and fiscal anti-family liberal -- has just been sworn in as a new state senator. With 27 votes needed to raise taxes again in the California State Senate, Democrats have 25 probable votes with which they could tax us more. With the possible tax-hike vote of Republican Abel Maldonado, the Senate could be one vote away from dumping even more financial burdens on California families.
What's more, Democrat Assemblywoman Noreen Evans of Santa Rosa, who chairs the two-house budget conference committee, is advocating giving all 52 California counties the authority to impose never-before-allowed local income taxes, and not even with a two-thirds vote, but with a simple majority vote.
And get this -- she even wants her Democrat colleagues to try to raise taxes again with a majority vote, by calling them "fees," not taxes.
This exact same unconstitutional trick was tried and passed last year by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, but Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Such is the disdain that Democrat lawmakers have for family finances and the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote to take more of your hard-earned money.
What to do about it:
SaveCalifornia.com predicts it's going to be a long month and a long, hot summer in Sacramento. A decade of overspending means hard decisions: smart cutting....foolish cutting....or higher taxes, fees and more borrowing.
Remember, in regard to taxing and spending, the Democrats are the problem. EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT LEGISLATOR RAISED TAXES ON FAMILIES in February. And because voters are only now realizing that that Democrats really do raise taxes, Democrat lawmakers hold a strong majority in both houses of the California Legislature.
Yet the key people for you to lobby are Republican lawmakers. Because the California Constitution require a two-thirds vote to raise taxes, higher tax schemes can't pass as long as Republican legislators vote NO and hold the line. But to cut the waste and stop additional taxes and fees, they must hold the line better than they've done in the past.
So get active. Call Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Republican legislators. Make these Republicans a priority and the Democrat leaders and other Democrats your second priority.
If Republican lawmakers refuse every scheme that would raise taxes, raise fees, borrow money, or allow local governments to tax your income...if they persevere and fight to protect California families' finances...then the waste WILL BE CUT BY FORCE.
However, if Republican leaders "fold their cards early" and refuse to serve. suffer and fight for the rest of us, California government will become even worse than today.
You must email and call in your demands to Sacramento so that no Republicans will cave like before.
And you must call and email the Democrats so they realize their days of taxing and spending are threatened by fed-up California voters.
Take immediate action:
1. EMAIL: Send your pre-written "cut the waste" email message to Governor Schwarzenegger, your own California state senator and your own California state assemblymember. (Yes, you can send this "cut the waste" message more than once.)
2. CALL IN THIS PRIORITY ORDER: DEMAND THAT THEY "CUT TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN WASTE -- NO NEW TAXES, FEES OR BORROWING."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(916) 445-2841 (Mon-Fri 9-5 p.m.) | His six other offices
Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murietta (916) 651-4036
Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo (916) 319-2033
The six current Republicans who raised taxes in February:
Senator Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria (916) 651-4015
(Maldonado says he's open to new taxes and fees)
Senator Dave Cogdill of Modesto (916) 651-4014
Senator Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield (916) 651-4018
Assemblyman Mike Villines of Clovis (916) 319-2029
Assemblyman Anthony Adams of Hesperia (916) 319-2059
Assemblyman Roger Niello of Sacramento (916) 319-2005
The leading Democrats who are still pushing for, or are open, to tax increases:
Budget Conference Committee Chair Noreen Evans of Santa Rosa (916) 319-2007
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass of Los Angeles
(916) 319-2047
Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento (916) 651-4006
3. CALL YOUR OWN CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLYMEMBER AND STATE SENATOR
Tell them you demand that they "Cut tens of billions of dollars in waste -- no new taxes, fees or borrowing!"
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 1158
California Credit Rating
It shouldn't be surprising as our legislators fiddle while the state is being flushed down the toilet that the cost of their childish, partisan actions increases the burden taxpayers have to bear.
Moody's warning on California debt stuns state
By Jim Christie
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California, which is struggling to close a $24.3 billion budget gap, faces the prospect of a "multi-notch" downgrade in its credit rating if the state's legislature fails to act quickly to produce a budget, Moody's Investors Service warned on Friday.
Moody's decision to place California's general obligation debt on alert for a possible "multi-notch" downgrade stunned state officials.
The state's current A2 credit rating is Moody's sixth-highest investment grade and makes California the lowest rated of the 50 states.
The A2 rating is just five notches above speculative status and Moody's raised the potential for the rating to tumble toward "junk" status if lawmakers fail to quickly produce a budget for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign.
"If the legislature does not take action quickly, the state's cash situation will deteriorate to the point where the controller will have to delay most non-priority payments in July," Moody's said in a statement.
"Lack of action could result in a multi-notch downgrade," Moody's added.
"I cannot remember reading a ratings note that raised the specter of a multi-notch downgrade," said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger on state finance matters. "It's another clear warning from the financial markets that there will be substantial and costly consequences if the legislature does not send the governor a budget that he can sign."
A downgrade could push California's borrowing costs up at time when state officials expect to issue up to $9 billion in revenue anticipation notes as soon as possible after a budget agreement is notched -- a deal whose timing is in doubt.
Moody's said California's leasing debt and other state-related debt are also on review, affecting a total of $72 billion of debt.
STATE FINANCES A MESS
Moody's cited California's expected massive budget gap for fiscal 2010 of more than 20 percent of its general fund budget; warnings by the state controller that without budget solutions the state will not be able to meet all its financial obligations in July; continued political stalemate, and the limited options.
Schwarzenegger and lawmakers face the task of closing a $24.3 billion budget deficit for the state's fiscal year beginning on July 1.
The gap was opened by the state's most severe drop in revenues since the Great Depression, including a steep drop in personal income taxes and sagging retail activity as consumers reined in spending, and the long-running downturn in housing.
Rising joblessness is also weighing on the state. Its unemployment rate jumped to 11.5 percent in May from 6.8 percent a year earlier, state officials reported on Friday.
The UCLA Anderson Forecast unit said earlier this week that the state economy would grow at more normal levels by the beginning of 2011, but will not create enough jobs to push the jobless rate below double digits until the end of that year.
Standard & Poor's on Monday placed California on review for a possible downgrade, also citing concerns about the state's fiscal stress.
Spreads on California general obligation debt have widened as the state's budget crisis has worsened. Since May 1, the yield on the five-year California GO scale is up 92 basis points, compared with a rise of 41 basis points for the five-year benchmark Municipal Market Data triple-A scale.
The warnings by the rating agencies may scare off some investors from holding the state's debt, said Lawrence Glazer, managing partner of Mayflower Advisors in Boston. "It appears that California will have some unpleasant decisions ahead of them. ... A scary headline is probably enough to shake some investors out of their positions in the State of California."
On the other hand, California's strained finances may attract investors looking for risk premium. "Some investors will look at buying and getting a yield advantage from California," he said.
(Additional reporting by Ciara Linnane and John Parry in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Feinstein, Boxer, Miller, Torlakson, DeSaulnier -
Reconquistas of the New Age of Aztlan
RealAmerica
Joined: Feb 2009
Current Posts: 902
known as Michael Jackson
funny, so sad!
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 1158
Stalling 4 Stupidity
The Sacto' Bee has a good article on the delusional Democrats in the Assembly that reject their constituents' good sense and are trying again to rely on tricks, smoke, and mirrors to address the budget instead of making the necessary meaningful cuts to make ends meet like the rest of us.
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1971860.html
RealAmerica
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 1158
Credit Rating Tanks
Still no word on reducing or denying benefits to illegal aliens that cause 1/4 of the budget shortfall. Meanwhile the state's credit rating tanks, incurring higher interest rates and less benefits available as a result. Way to go, loopy liberals in Sacto!
http://www.newsmax.com/us/california_debt_rating/2009/07/07/232673.html
RealAmerica
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 1158
Legislators Break Oath of Office
State legislators swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution before they took their offices. That document specifically prohibits states from issuing script (IOUs). So what are they doing in Sacto now instead of coming to grips with the budget?
http://www.newsmax.com/us/us_california_budget_ious/2009/07/07/232932.ht...
RealAmerica