Left wing challenges Jerry Brown’s tax boost

Left wing challenges Jerry Brown’s tax boost

April 12, 2012

By John Seiler

Our friend Ben Boychuk of City Journal California writes an incisive analysis of how Gov. Jerry Brown’s $9 billion tax increase initiative is being challenged — by a $10 billion tax increase from his Left. Ben:

Jerry Brown wants Californians to believe that the state, facing a current budget deficit of $9 billion, has a revenue problem. In fact, what the 30 million residents of the Golden State have is an entitlement problem. From health care to state and local public-employee retirement benefits, Californians face as much as $500 billion in unfunded liabilities for pensions alone. The state’s unfunded health-care liabilities top $62 billion.

Brown’s new budget actually proposes a 7 percent increase in spending, though it offers to cut some services. All of the governor’s plans assume that substantial, voter-approved tax hikes will provide billions in new revenue, helping to pay for the extra spending and shrinking the deficit. “I’m promising wine and roses,” he told reporters after a speech last month, “but not in 2012.”

Read the rest here.

Ben titled his analysis, “Guns and Roses,” a take on Brown’s phrase; also a reference to the rock group that was based here. Speaking of which, here’s a YouTube of G ‘n’ R’s “Welcome to the Jungle,” which describes California’s tax climate, especially the lines, spoken by the governor and Left-tax increaser Molly Munger:

In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your kn-kn-knees, knees
I wanna watch you bleed



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