The Legislative Counsel, the Legislature's lawyer, is defending a tax-raising plan floated by Democrats late in 2008 to raise taxes with only a majority vote.
Typically, tax hikes take a two-thirds vote. But the Democrats' plan called for swapping taxes dedicated to certain programs for fees and then hiking other taxes.
The March 9 opinion is addressed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The opinion, however, was requested by the tax commission Schwarzenegger created to overhaul the state's tax codes, not the governor's office.
Read the full seven-page opinion for yourself.
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