Skelton: Raise taxes, er fees, by majority vote

LAT columnist George Skelton argues this morning that the governator has offered confused and confusing reasons for his recent veto threat concerning the Democrats' legislative approach to solving California's budget crisis. Skelton is right. The governator has been incoherent.

But the plan that Skelton and the Democrats espouse is illegal. They can't legally raise taxes by majority vote. California's constitution requires a two-thirds vote. Democrats want to call some of the tax increases "fees" because fee increases do not require tw0-thirds. Democrats hope that some court will rule in their favor and bail them out.

But you can't change the nature of a thing by changing what you call it. The proposed "fees" are disguised tax increases. If it quacks like a duck ...