February 28, 2008

Tax increases ok, just not those tax increases

The governor -- and his spinners -- tried to back him away from what sounded like a full-throated endorsement this morning of the tax increases proposed by Legislative Analyst Liz Hill -- about $2.5 billion a year in personal and business tax hikes. But the end result, even if it didn't move him much from where he was before, is a very clear statement that he considers "loophole closures" to be very much on the table. He would probably like a different menu of revenue raisers than Hill proposed. But no one can doubt now that he is more than open to some kind of tax increase. The question will be: Does it really matter? They will still need two Republicans in the Senate and 6 in the Assembly to go along, and so far, there is no indication that those voters are there or will be there.

Posted by dweintraub on February 28, 2008 3:30 PM