Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines and ousted Senate GOP chief Dave Cogdill have published an op-ed in the Fresno Bee on why they supported -- and negotiated -- this budget.
To be sure, the budget the Legislature passed was very difficult to negotiate and includes some items we strongly disagree with, particularly taxes. If Republicans were the majority party and could control the budget, there would be no talk about raising taxes, period. Republicans would be working to lessen the tax burden on hard-working Californians. But Republicans don't control the budget process; Democrats do.
So we had a choice. We could continue to say no and refuse to negotiate, facing the real prospect of enough lawmakers agreeing to pass a budget without Republican input. That budget would have surely included massive tax increases and overspending, with no reform.Or we could negotiate a budget compromise with Democrats on a budget that saves California from the brink of insolvency, gets hard-working taxpayers their long overdue tax refunds, helps to get our economy growing again and includes long-term fixes to our budget problems. We chose the latter course.
This close of the piece sounds like is came straight from the keyboard of the governor's speechwriters: "There is no doubt that this budget is a true compromise. No one got everything they wanted and everyone will have to sacrifice to get us back on track. In the end, Democrats and Republicans came together to do what's right and finally get California on the road to recovery."
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