Our View: Double-teamed on new taxes

The governor joins Democrats in calling for the exact wrong remedy for a budget crisis

The longer the state goes without a budget, it seems the farther from a reasonable solution our leaders drift. To close a huge budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now proposes a "temporary" 1-cent increase in an already hefty 7.25-cent statewide sales tax. Most counties already add to that burden, including Orange County, where it's now at 7.75 cents on the dollar.

The state Legislature is more than a month late adopting a budget. The reason is lawmakers have about $15 billion less money than they want to spend.

A private company or a family would reasonably reduce spending. But our legislative leaders so far are paralyzed. While many states found themselves in similar fiscal straits, California appears to lead the pack when it comes to an inability to fix the problem. It's nothing to cheer about.

In California, the deadlocked budget negotiations can be blamed on Democrats who refuse to balance the budget by reducing spending, or on Republicans who refuse to increase taxes.

But according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, other states largely avoided raising taxes to compensate for their revenue shortfall. Instead, 10 states cut spending. Thirteen states laid off government employees or froze hiring. Four states reached into reserve funds. Two states borrowed from tobacco taxes or tobacco company legal settlements. Delaware and Rhode Island decided to expand legal gambling.

But in California, the Legislature remains gridlocked as Democrats and now the governor insist on imprudently adding more taxes to residents' tax burden, even as California businesses and families staggering from the economic downturn cut back their spending, as prudent financial management dictates.

Meanwhile, the state controller reports California overspent by $3.9 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30, even as the Legislature and governor propose to overspend some more for the fiscal year that began July 1. Don't these people ever learn?

The insistence on more taxes rather than less spending presumes every dime allocated in the budget is warranted. It's an assumption that all services provided by are government are government's responsibility. Wrong on both counts.

Giving the Legislature and governor more money to mismanage and squander is irresponsible. Yet, it's the knee-jerk reaction of those in control in Sacramento.