Pirate's Cove

Now, why would Democrats want to keep it easier to pass tax increases, and keep those stupid peasants out of it?

California Democrats pass measure to thwart business effort to block tax increases

The Democratic-led California Legislature voted to place on the ballot an amendment to the state Constitution that seeks to thwart a business-led effort to make it harder to pass new taxes.

Lawmakers on Thursday passed Assembly Constitutional Amendment 13, which would require ballot initiatives that seek to increase voter thresholds under the California Constitution to meet that same higher bar in order to take effect.

The amendment, which will go before voters on the March primary ballot, is a direct response to an initiative called the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act. Led by the California Business Roundtable and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., that act would require voter approval for all tax increases passed in Sacramento. New local special taxes also would require a two-thirds vote of approval by residents.

It’s starts getting all sorts of detailed and politicalish on how all the initiatives works, the upshot is that Democrats really want to keep the California citizens out of the way when it comes to tax increases. Their idea is that the peasants vote for Democrats, often unopposed, and the elected class votes however they want, and the peasants should simply say thank you and do as they’re told.

ACA 13 is the latest example of political gamesmanship in the battle between progressive unions and conservative business interests at the state Capitol.

Defeating the business-backed ballot measure has become high priority for Democrats and their allies.

Service Employees International Union of California, which co-sponsored ACA 13, and a coalition that includes the League of California Cities and the California Teachers Assn. contend businesses are trying to deceive voters and undermine the will of communities to adopt their own measures. The coalition contends that the changes would result in millions of dollars in cuts to local public services.

In other words, the unions are part of the effort to kill the tax initiative because so many get their money by feeding at the taxpayer funded trough, and want it to continue to be easy to pass tax increases. As far as public services, so many of these Democrat run cities have trouble just cleaning the streets. How much poop is all over San Francisco?

Business interests say they are funding the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act in order to increase accountability over how government spends California tax dollars.

Their argument against ACA 13 is relatively similar to the case made by unions against the business-backed measure.

The California Business Roundtable contends that ACA 13 is an example of special interests trying to diminish the voice of voters by applying the change only to amendments that land on the ballot through the signature-gathering process and not those that are passed through the Legislature.

The question now is “do the citizens of California vote for or against the control of tax increases?” This is the People’s Republik Of California after all, where they typically vote against their own interests and for Government telling them how to live their lives. Seriously, I don’t know why businesses fight such tax legislation, its going to pass, just quit doing business in California.

Read: PRC Democrats Pass Bill That Looks To Stop Citizens From Making It Harder To Pass Tax Increases »