Jerry: Tax Vote w/o GOP OK

John Seiler:

“Ya gotta do what ya gotta do,” Bill Clinton once said about some political maneuvering he was undertaking.

Clinton and Gov. Jerry Brown have had their altercations over the years, although they made nicey, nicey last year during Jerry’s election bid. But under his Zen zaniness, Jerry also is a practiced practical politician, although never nearly as good as Clinton. It’s hard to beat the King of Pragmatism.

So, although Jerry all along has insisted that there is positively no way he would put a tax-increase vote without at least some Republican support in the Legislature, that’s now what he says he’ll do if he has to. The L.A. Times reports:

Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that he was determined to allow California voters to vote on his budget plan — even if he failed to garner Republican support for his special election.

Speaking before the California Labor Federation in a hotel ballroom near the Capitol on Monday, Brown criticized Republicans for holding up his election plans in the Legislature. “They think they can say, ‘No, you have no right to vote.’ And that’s wrong,” he said of GOP lawmakers. “We will vote no matter what anybody says across the street.”

Of course, Dr. Democracy is not determined to allow California voters to vote on tax cuts, pension reform or bringing back the Gann Limit to out-of-control state spending. You can take Democracy too far. Especially if that means giving the people an actual say in what’s going down for a state that’s headed down and out.

So maybe we will have a vote, after all, in June. Preceded by copious lawsuits. And, if the tax increase wins, followed by copious lawsuits.

Well, why not. Jerry’s a lawyer, so it’ll be good business for his guild.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

March 22, 2011