Up The Mainstream

Well, here's another great reason to repeal California's "super majority" rule to pass the state budget. I hope Arnold sits on his blue pencil and takes it where he's sticking it to low-income seniors.

Arnold Raises Taxes on Low-Income Seniors
by Paul Hogarth‚ Sep. 25‚ 2008

As if this year's state budget wasn't horrific enough, the Governor just made it worse. By exercising his constitutional power to "blue-pencil" out specific items, Arnold Schwarzenegger abolished the Senior Citizens Renters' Tax Assistance—a 40-year-old program that gives rebates to low-income elderly tenants of up to $347.50 a year. He also took $41 million out of a similar tax credit program for low-income homeowners. A Governor who wouldn't even restore the top income tax bracket for rich people to Reagan-era levels somehow found it appropriate to abolish a modest tax credit for vulnerable seniors. As momentum grows to repeal the two-thirds rule to pass a state budget (which has paralyzed our state government year after year), it's also time to repeal the Governor's ability to "blue pencil" items out—which he has now abused twice in two years.