Ca Budget

[RLymanC]

The California Legislature passed the 2011/2012 budget yesterday with spending cuts, a few tax changes, and smoke and mirrors.

It is unknown whether the Governor will sign the budget, but it doesn’t matter to the Legislature — they took care of their requirement to send a budget to the Governor or not get paid.

The tax-related provisions include:

•0.25% sales tax increase (to fund local districts);
•$12 increase in the DMV fee; and

•Requirement that online sellers in California collect sales and use tax on items sold over the Internet. Most notably this will impact sales on Amazon, Overstock.com, and eBay.

Missing were an income tax rate increase, reduction in dependent exemptions, and the ability for a county or school district to put a referendum on the ballot to collect taxes, including income tax. However, the Legislature went back in session today, and we could still see activity on these and many other tax-related issues in the coming months.


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[S T]

Vetoed

Just received the Spidell Flash Email,
Governor Brown vetoed the budget presented

Governor already vetoed budget (06-16-11)
Governor Brown has already vetoed the budget presented to him yesterday by the Legislature. In his message vetoing the bills, the Governor stated "Unfortunately, the budget I have received is not a balanced solution. It continues big deficits for years to come and adds billions of dollars of new debt. It also contains legally questionable maneuvers, costly borrowing and unrealistic savings."

The veto is not surprising, as it has been said that the budget was thrown together so the Legislature could continue to be paid.

Sandy

[RLymanC]

Veto

Governor Brown has already vetoed the budget presented to him yesterday by the Legislature. In his message vetoing the bills, the Governor stated "Unfortunately, the budget I have received is not a balanced solution. It continues big deficits for years to come and adds billions of dollars of new debt. It also contains legally questionable maneuvers, costly borrowing and unrealistic savings."

The veto is not surprising, as it has been said that the budget was thrown together so the Legislature could continue to be paid.

[joanmcq]

Yup, I heard the pay thing too. Not surprising. Why don't they just stop calling the dependency exemption credit reduction & VLF fees and all that 'new taxes'. They're not. They are just old taxes that were reduced when CA had a bunch of money 10 years ago that are being reinstated because we don't have any money now. Partly because they reduced all those taxes 10 years ago.

I'm getting to the point where I just want to smack a few politicians and yell 'wake up!!!!'

Whatever happened to the common good?

[DTS]

Seems like there is always a budget crisis here in CA.

I think the solution for CA is to raise taxes (or "fees") as high as they can get away with and get the notion of meaningful or even severe cuts in spending out of the discussion. This will get us on the right track. I am confident this is what Brown had in mind when he vetoed that budget.

After all, our money really is the politicians' money, right?