A California Republican

Speaking from a conservative point of view, the budget deal is not a good one.

Tax hikes hit everyone, but they hit the working class, middle class and lowest classes the hardest. Why? Because these are the people who have to spend money on food, gas and other things whose prices are going up.

In a recession where families do not have a lot of flexibility in their incomes, if any at all, raising the prices of goods that people need to live is a ridiculous idea.

Californians have built out, not up, when they ahve built new cities and devlopments. As a result, public transit isn’t as effective as it could be and people use a lot of cars. Raising the gas tax will make some people be priced out of using their cars. Then these people will lose their jobs and not be able to pay things and get on the state rolls and cost money.

Raising the price of food will drive more people to foodbanks and assistance programs which are already struggling.

Now, some of these things can be overcome with good budgeting. It means eating less meats and more generic foods. It means spending longer hours commuting on public transportation (and longer hours for kids in day care).

In general, raising taxes is a bad idea. What you need to do to get out of a recession spiral is enable people to spend. Raising taxes does not encourage spending, it encourages saving.

This budget deal has some great breaks for corporations and construction. It gives them some tax breaks and incentives to stay in California - even though doing business here is more costly than other states. It also allows construction to pick up again with a minimal EIR requirements. The environmental requirements in California are so heavy and costly, lightening them in a recession is a good thing.

Yet there is a problem. The budget doesn’t do anything -structurally - to deal with the situation.

When a family is in tough times, cuts have to be made and spending has to be cut down. Families cannot rely on someone else to give them money to help bail them out. Instead, a family has to make tough choices and stop spending.

The government has the same responsibility as a family. There are tough choices to be made. They have to stop spending. Stop. Cut spending even.

There is no other way out of this problem.

The budget deal, with half cuts, half taxes and borrowing (let’s not even talk about the ridiculousness of borrowing when you have no credit rating) doesn’t fix the problem. It delays it to another batch of legislators.

Be responsible and take responsibility for the state you represent. Pass a budget deal that fixes the problem.