Regardless of state deficit, Dems would push to raise taxes anyway

The current state budget deficit provides the Democrats with an excuse to raise taxes, but even if the state were running a surplus, their team would be pushing for increases anyway. Here's why.

Even in good economic times, hardly a month goes by when some group on the left whines about the need to "reform" (read: "eliminate") the property tax protections of Proposition 13, or scrap the two-thirds majority required to raise taxes, or find some other way to make it easier to transfer more money from taxpayers to those who benefit from a growing government.

With state government spending way up, and tax revenue even, the state budget deficit becomes the convenient excuse to raise taxes. Fearing a taxpayer backlash, their team argues that they are only targeting "the wealthy" or "big corporations." This is class warfare at its finest (or worst) – "don't worry, we're raising taxes, but it's on somebody else."

I wrote about this more extensively in my Flashreport commentary yesterday.

Ultimately, the state budget will be balanced through some mechanism that has yet to be worked out. And then, once again, the Democrats will be back for another tax increase. If it's not to plug some future deficit, it will be for the sake of "fairness" or some other excuse. The reality is the other team will continue to push for tax increases for as long as their coalition is made up of the various groups that depend on government largesse.

Republicans in Sacramento need your support as they continue to resist the various pressure groups pushing for higher taxes. Let them know you support them.