It looks like a 1 percent sales-tax hike isn’t just a theory…
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to end the stalemate over the state budget Wednesday by offering a compromise spending plan that calls for a temporary 1 percent sales-tax increase and additional cuts.
In the past, the governor has said he is against raising taxes. But with the budget nearly two months overdue, he said it is time to move beyond partisan ideology. He said Republicans and Democrats must find a middle ground between taxes and cuts to state programs.
California was supposed to have a budget in place by July 1, the start of the fiscal year, but lawmakers differ over how to close the $15.2 billion deficit.
“This compromise budget proposal puts our state on the road to fiscal sanity and will give California a budget that works,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference.
The governor’s proposal has put him in the curious position of having Democrats as allies, and getting criticism from his own Republican party.
Senate majority leader Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, said she appreciated the governor taking a practical view of the budget.
“I applaud the governor for forgetting about campaign pledges and ideology and trying to do what is right for California,” said Romero. “We have to do cuts and we have to have new revenue … we can’t borrow our way out.”
But Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, said he expected there would be no compromise as long as new taxes were part of the plan.
“It’s a non-starter for us. … it is the wrong thing to do to people in this kind of economy,” said Huff. “Sadly, the governor has lost credibility on both sides of the aisle… he has not been the strong rudder he was earlier in his term.”
