Posted by Tina
State budget relies on sham revenue, by Dan Walters
Remember those Democrats who promised to end years of deficit borrowing and bookkeeping trickery with a straightforward budget that raised taxes to cover obligations? They embraced a get-out-of-town scheme that’s the antithesis of common sense budgeting, and hid most of the details until the last minute. *** Remember those Republicans who made noise about not raising taxes, even temporarily,
because they would damage an already declining economy? Never mind. They opted for siphoning billions of extra dollars out of Californians’ paychecks through “accelerated withholding” money that consumers won’t get back until they receive tax refunds in 2010. *** Remember Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vowed never to sign a budget unless it had “reforms” to end the cycle of deficits and debts? The budget that’s headed his way not only does virtually nothing to preclude future deficits, but probably would make them worse. *** If Californians needed even more evidence that their state government is completely and irrevocably dysfunctional, those they elected to high state office provided it with easily the worst budget in memory.