Tea Party Patriot Sends Alert

Last week, Tea Party Patriot Carolyn Guillot issued an alert regarding Governor-elect Jerry Brown’s upcoming budget proposal. Guillot is asking everyone to hold state representatives accountable to Tea Party principles on taxes and spending. She says representatives should

1. Vote NO on extending the “temporary tax increases” (to end July 1)
2. Vote NO on any new taxes
3. Vote YES on the governor’s proposed spending cuts
4. Hold strong – unless they want their heads on a stick, as John & Ken would say

The Dec. 29 L.A. Times article by Shane Goldmacher describes Brown’s tax plan: 

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown is laying the groundwork for a budget plan that would couple deep cuts to state services, including university systems and welfare programs, with a request that voters extend temporary tax hikes on vehicles, income and sales that are set to expire next year.

The blueprint Brown will unveil when he takes office early next month also is expected to take aim at several tax breaks and subsidies that have been fiercely guarded by the business lobby in Sacramento, according to people involved in budget discussions with the incoming administration.

Among the breaks are multibillion-dollar incentives for redevelopment projects and hundreds of millions of dollars of "enterprise zone" credits meant to encourage investment in blighted neighborhoods. Also targeted is a recent change to state business tax formulas that has saved corporate California roughly $1 billion.

The combination of austere spending and extended tax hikes is designed to confront both parties and their allied interest groups with painful choices that Brown says are necessary to truly resolve the state's massive budget problems. He intends to take swift action, using the political capital of a new governor to confront a deficit that could easily subsume his governorship.

To read the entire article, go to http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/29/local/la-me-budget-20101229

The OC Register published a similar account on Dec. 30: http://totalbuzz.ocregister.com/2010/12/30/brown-wants-tax-hike-on-june-ballot/46268/