Arnold Schwarzenegger who was swept into office in a special election in 2003 as a Republican continues to act more like a Democrat especially after his latest proposal to temporarily raise sales taxes by 1-cent to help plug a $15 billion budget gap. 

From the Sacramento Bee.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, butting heads with his own Republican Party, has proposed a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase that would generate billions to help end a bitter budget standoff.

Schwarzenegger made it clear in making the proposal to legislative leaders over the weekend that he also wants long-term fixes to the state’s chronic budget woes, several legislative sources from both parties said Monday.

The governor basically framed his sales tax hike – expected to raise about $6 billion annually – as a temporary sacrifice to be recouped by Californians in years to come, the sources said.

Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, declined to confirm or deny the report Monday in keeping with his practice not to discuss closed-door negotiations.

“The governor has been pushing for a compromise between legislative leaders, and budget reform must be part of any agreement,” McLear said.

Specifically, Schwarzenegger’s proposal would hike the sales tax rate by 1 cent for three or four years, then drop the rate even lower than consumers pay now – perhaps by a quarter cent – for enough years that Californians could recover their losses, legislative sources said.

California’s current sales tax rate is 6.25 percent, but all counties charge at least an additional 1 percent, many even more than that.

Temporary tax increase my foot.  If this increase is approved you can bet that in 3 or 4 years when it is supposed to be cut back that the new governor and legislature will not act.  Once they get their hands on the additional funds they will spend it and will never give it back.  It won’t matter to Arnold since he will be long gone from office, but it will matter to Californian’s whose tax burden already among the highest in the U.S. will only grow more onerous.

 

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