Jan 12 2011
Brown’s Tough Budget, Not So Tough on Corporations
California’s new Governor Jerry Brown on Monday released what he called “a tough budget for tough times.” Brown’s balanced budget comes from taxes, cuts to social services, and deep cuts in pay for state employees. The proposed taxes will be extensions of tax increases implemented in 2009 that are set to expire at the end of June of this year. Brown will call a special election to allow voters to approve or deny the extensions. There is also at least $2 billion in new revenue to be generated through closing corporate tax loopholes and ending business tax credits. One of Brown’s targets is a loophole that allows corporations to calculate their taxes using two different methods, and the choice to pay the lesser of the two totals. Had California passed proposition 24 in November it would have ended this and two other corporate tax loopholes. The Governor spared K-12 education because, he said, the system has already taken big hits. The University of California and State College systems however will lose $500 million dollars each. And the social safety net will be pulled out from under hundreds of thousands of Californians. Day care programs and in-home supportive services for elderly and disabled adults will be dramatically cut, and Medi-Cal healthcare for low income residents will lose $1.7 billion. CalWorks, which provides cash assistance and child-care to low-income families, will be cut by more than 50%. Most shocking of to many progressives is that Brown refused to add in an oil-severance tax on oil companies, leaving California the only oil producing state without such a tax.
GUESTS: Frank Tamborello, Director and Community Educator at Hunger Action Los Angeles; Jerry Higgs a Hunger Action L.A. Board Member and recipient of Supplemental Security Income; Lenny Goldberg, Executive Director of the California Tax Reform Association
Find out more at www.caltaxreform.org, and www.hungeractionla.org.
2 Responses to “Brown’s Tough Budget, Not So Tough on Corporations”
Why is California the only state in the nation not to charge an oil severance tax? Brown needs to stop pandering to the oil companies and make them pay their fair share of taxes.
Furthermore, he needs to stop making cuts to the universities!
There is very little difference between Brown’s budget proposals and previous budgets, because Brown’s budget is mastered-minded by the oil industry. There is no provision for closing corporate tax loopholes, no oil extraction tax and no oil corporation, windfall profits tax. Californians pay the highest price for gasoline in the nation. Brown’s budget is the same, because again, it picks on the most vulnerable. Jerry apppears to be working for Big Oil and not for the Californians who voted for him.