By Tim Redmond
Now the non-tough-guy gov says he’s going to veto the state budget if it includes any new taxes.
The new taxes, of course, include the repeal of a couple of big tax breaks that essentially hand state money to a tiny number of giant businesses.
But Schwarzenegger doesn’t care — he’s going to keep threatening the Legislature and putting forward random deadlines and trying to get an all-cuts budget.
Remember: It’s going to be hard to get to the two-thirds requirement for any new taxes anyway. (BTW, Sen. Mark Leno points out (and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano agrees) that in fact, due to some complicated legal stuff, it will indeed take two thirds to repeal the tax breaks. So already we’re looking at a budget that will need GOP support.
And the taxes are about $2 billion, matched with more than $11 billion in cuts.
And while the governor, and the major news media, keep talking about a budget deadline as if this were a typical summer, Leno points out that the Legislature has already passed a budget. This is all about revisions.
But I’m starting to think that ol’ Arnold really wants to shut down the state. There’s no other way to explain his behavior.