I read Tim's columns when I come across them and he gives good, non-partisan commentary and info about the games being played in Sacramento. There's a lot of beef about what the Right's up to, especially with their inane school yard pledge to destroy CA, if necessary, by refusing all tax proposals...but Tim also has a lot to say about the Left's cynical, behind-closed-doors deal making. Wish all pundits were as thorough!

..and, of course, Timm is spelled with two Ms. My bad!

gs, why are you so surprised that the GOP is opposing new taxes? They are actually in sync with the rest of the state right now on the issue of tax increases. Recent polls show Jerry Brown's slate of tax increases on the November ballot going down in flames.

Again, this should be no surprise to anyone. People are just not getting behind tax increases during an economic recession, especially when they see how their current taxes are being wasted and misused -- pension increases for public employees, out of scale salaries for public sector managers and executives, huge retirement payouts for public employees, etc.

According to the polls, people living in these recessionary times have had to cut back on their own expenses, so they're wondering why government can't do the same.

How much have your state taxes gone down in the past 10 years? That's right, they haven't. Only the taxes of the very well off have gone down while services for the rest have been cut dramatically or become more costly.

In exchange for over $26B in tax cuts....almost ALL of which have been submitted by Dem legislators during these 10 years...while their Repub counterparts have offered over $4B in budget hikes via increased borrowing costs... CA's working families have been increasingly targeted, furloughed, laid off, marginalized and cut off from help.

What that's done is placed a half million more homeowners in jeopardy, cut consumer spending throughout the state, placed a heavier burden on HC services & unemployment resources, increased the costs of police protection, increased court and penal system costs, put higher education out of the reach of 100s of thousands, disabled public education, reduced state revenues....the list goes on and on.

What we should be doing is cutting middle class tax, govt service and education burdens by (1)instituting an oil extraction fee equal to Alaska's own: $6B. (2) eliminate the commercial loop holes real estate assesments: $5B+. Reinstate full vehicle registration fees: $2B+. Squash the high speed rail project. Dump plans for a massive new levee construction project in the Delta. Raise taxes on that part of incomes that exceed $1M. Petition Congress for a reformulation of Federal Revenue Sharing, so that CA can keep more of the money that it sends to the US Treasury...only to be handed over to the red states (my estimate: CA should receive back an additional $8B-$10B every year).

GS:
Your thought-provoking comments should certainly motivate quite the cyber-discussion of this blog regarding the existential challenges that Californian's face in constructing an efficacious and efficient a tax system required to fund the “core” functions of State government in a dynamic, modern era.
Back in November of 2011, the Economist ran an article entitled, “California’s Dysfunctional Politics, Help on the Way.” [See URL Above].
In my view, that article correctly diagnosed the existential financing problem that California’s State government faces, namely that, “The state’s tax system, designed for an agricultural and manufacturing economy, is now outdated and needlessly volatile.”
The Economist article goes on to observe that, “In 1950 California got 60% of its revenues from sales taxes, which apply only to goods. Since then, untaxed services have become the mainstay of the economy, so sales taxes now contribute only about 22%. Income taxes, mainly on the richest Californians, have during that time grown from 10% of total revenues to more than half, making state revenues highly volatile.”
From my point of view, the State’s so-called, “extremely progressive tax system” has morphed into a “Rube-Goldberg,” tax collection nightmare, which fails utterly to meet the needs of the State’s citizens in a state with Gross State Product that is equivalent of the seventh or eighth largest economy in the world today!
During periodic economic down-turns the State’s current tax system serves to amplify the State’s fiscal crises. It does so by alternating boom-bust cycles of exploding State revenues and spending followed by State budget collapse and emergency retrenchment measures of dubious fiscal and operational value and even less utility to the hard-working citizens of the State, proposed by political gamesman.
As you correctly observe, the State’s current tax collection system, reflects the collective fruits, however pungent, of years-long political labors of Democratic majorities in the State Legislature, along with complicit acquiescence by “borrow-today, pay-later” so-called fiscally responsible Republican governors.
California also has a related serious State spending level and governmental efficiency problem with the growth in State government spending consistently exceeding reasonable escalation due to population and economic growth percentages experienced in the State. If State government spending had only increased at the rate of State population growth and inflation since 1996, recession-level State revenues plus reserves would now be more than sufficient to balance the State Budget.
Among the most egregious examples of arguably excessive State spending is the exploding cost of the State’s prison system. Currently, the State spends in excess of $50,000 per incarcerated inmate per year. At such levels the State currently spends more to incarcerate a prisoner that the entire annual budget for a typical family of four in California, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, entertainment, education expenses, health care and everything else! That is of course, if the breadwinner(s) in such a typical CA family is/are lucky enough to have a job(s).
Looking at the California’s skewed State spending priorities from another angle, currently; the $50,000 annual tax-payer funded cost to incarcerate an inmate is more than 150% of the estimated $31,000 annual cost to educate a student in the UC system, including tuition, fees, books, room and board and transportation expenses for a UC student who lives on-campus.
The CA State Legislature’s highly volatile, anti-growth, Rube Goldberg tax system helped to create a mind-boggling structural deficit problem which threatens the State’s ability to fund everything from parks to prisons, education to health. Let alone vital public works infrastructure, required to facilitate economic growth and prosperity.
Politically-motivated and fiscally unrestrained excess State spending during boom times can never be entirely cut back during the busts. So therefore, the State Legislature continues to kick-the-spending-can down the road, and utilize short-term inter-fund borrowing and other budget gimmicks to keep from making the tough budget cutting choices required by their failure to overhaul the State’s current tax system.
Well the State’s fiscal chickens have once again come home to roost. Unfortunately, based on significantly lower than budgeted State income-tax collection receipts [i.e. State Controller’s figures confirm that the first-one third of State tax payments received in April of this year produced one-ninth of the revenues that Governor Brown’s budget projected], the day of fiscal reckoning has now arrived, with a vengeance.
We’ll have to see whether and how the State Legislature, controlled in both houses by Democrats, chooses to react to today’s admonition from Democratic Governor Brown to “Man-up and make the budget cuts,” required to balance the current year’s State budget.

Unfortunately for all Californians, it appears once again to be “budget-chicken” games déjà vu. Although if memory serves me correctly, the last time it was a Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarznegger who derisively referred to the California Legislature as populated by a “bunch of girliemen.”
It remains to be seen if and how the Democratically-controlled State Legislature chooses to square-the-political circle of manning-up fiscally as urged by Democratic Governor Brown.