California Senate Republicans today voted against the Democrats’ Leaders budget proposal, warning that the plan doubles down on failed policies that have made California less affordable while expanding government spending and new taxes.
Today’s vote on Assembly Bill 109 was simply to pass a “shell” budget so Democrat lawmakers would technically meet the June 15 constitutional budget deadline so they wouldn’t get their pay cut off tomorrow.
The gory details of the full Democrat leaders’ budget, which will include new tax hikes on phones, computers, gasoline and health plans, will come out over the next couple weeks in a series of so-called “trailer bills."
"When your budget has nearly doubled in less than a decade, but families are struggling to afford housing, gas, groceries, and healthcare, the state’s accounting system is clearly broken," said Senator Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks), Vice Chair of the Senate Budget Committee. "This budget relies on new taxes and borrowing and asks working families to pay even more for government programs that continue to fall short."
The budget agreement also fails to address California's growing unemployment insurance debt, forcing employers to shoulder a tax burden that has increased more than 250 percent per employee. It also does nothing to stop the upcoming gas tax increase, which will push California's gas tax above 63 cents per gallon while families already pay the highest fuel prices in the nation.
"Tax-and-spend Democrats continue to demonstrate an unprecedented level of tone-deafness and seem unconcerned with delivering real results with Californians’ hard-earned tax dollars," said Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego). "This budget just goes to show that our once ‘golden’ state has become a playground for left-wing politicians, where $2 billion green fleets are a better use of our gas tax money than safe roads, and suing the federal administration is more important than funding public safety. The state needs to stop funding pet projects and pursuing personal vendettas with taxpayer funds. It’s time to prioritize the people, but today’s budget does not reflect that – quite the opposite."
Rather than tackling affordability, legislative Democrats approved billions in new taxes and fees, including a $14 billion tax increase on computer and phone services that will ultimately be passed on to consumers and businesses, a new healthcare tax that will increase insurance costs for families, and forked over another $1 billion to the state's failed high-speed rail project.
“While Republican lawmakers double down on priorities that reflect the real needs of Californians, Democrat politicians double down on their tax-and-spend policies that fail to put working families first,” Niello added. "This budget spends more, but fails more. It will make our state even more unaffordable than it already is. Everyday Californians truly deserve better."
Senate Republicans submitted their budget priorities in a letter to Governor Newsom and legislative budget leaders as they prepared to finalize his eighth and final budget.
Senate Republicans’ letter to the state’s Democratic budget leaders laid out five core priorities that must be addressed for the economic stability of the state and to provide Californians relief from the unsustainable policy-imposed costs of living here. They are:
Fully funding Proposition 36.
Focusing on wildfire prevention programs.
Assisting financially distressed hospitals.
Funding fraud prevention and accountability measures for state programs.
Making the state pay off pandemic-era unemployment insurance loans (as every other state has done) instead of pushing repayment onto businessowners.