Posted 1/7/12 – State Senator Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), recently voted to replace Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga as Senate Republican Leader, issued the following statement following the Governor’s announcement to implement mid-year trigger cuts to deal with a mounting state budget deficit and seek new taxes.
“I’m pleased that the Governor has spared K-12 education the draconian trigger cuts set up by the Democrats last July. Using their newly delegated majority budget authority, legislative Democrats forged a budget without Republican input that included rosy revenue assumptions and onerous trigger cuts to education should the tax money not come in. Senate Republicans were ready to roll up our sleeves and hammer out a budget solution then, and we are still ready now. Lost in the slick sales pitch for higher so-called temporary taxes, though, is the fact that our tax revenues are up over last year, with sales and use tax leading the charge at almost 8%, followed by personal income tax growth of 4.5 %. Raising the tax rates at a time our state is struggling to emerge from a recession and high unemployment is not the answer, and will strangle our recovery.”
Supervisor Michael Antonovich also issued a statement. From the Supervisor’s office: “In response to Governor Brown’s proposed ballot initiatives to increase taxes to fund his realignment law that sends state felons to county jails, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said, “By asking voters to consider tax increases even as the state’s economy remains stalled by slow growth and high unemployment, Governor Brown is saddling a dead horse to ride California into prosperity.”
“Threatening Draconian cuts in public safety and education is the typical scare tactic used by politicians who fail to restrain the state bureaucracy through consolidation and reform,” he added.