California's legislature passed a deadline yesterday without acting. They were told by the state's controller that the state would run out of cash in July and would be $2.78 billion in the red by July 31st.
According to the LAT, state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Democrat from Los Angeles, responded yesterday by announcing that she intends to push for $1 billion in new taxes on tobacco and oil. State Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg, also a Democrat, said yesterday, according to the LAT, that the Senate next week will take up the issue of whether to postpone $2 billion of tax breaks for corporations that were passed last February but that haven't taken effect yet.
We've been down this road before. Democrats don't have the votes to raise taxes. Republicans won't help them. Why waste time negotiating over something that isn't going to happen?
The legislature has been fiddling around with the budget deficit, currently $24 billion, for more than a year, refusing to face up to its responsibilities, refusing to face facts. Legislators need to quit fiddling and solve this problem -- now.
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