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Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised plan to balance California’s budget by cutting more money from those who are still struggling will cause more harm than good.

            Brown pleaded with voters at a Capitol news conference on May 14. “Please raise taxes temporarily,” he said. But that’s become a lot to ask for now; we should be wary of paying more taxes in order to make up for years of government over-spending and mistakes. The latest being a $7 billion miscalculation that saw an estimated $9 billion budget deficit in January balloon to $16 billion just last week.

            “You can never get it exactly right,” said Gov. Brown.

            Come November, voters might not get it “exactly right” as well. Anger will fuel some to vote “No” on Brown’s all important tax initiative, especially when funding for Medi-Cal and the income of our state’s union workers are now being put on the chopping block.

            We should have the right to be hesitant in raising our own taxes to relieve a budget deficit caused by others, but the unfair truth is we have no choice but to do so in order to save education and the economy.

The rich are still being taxed comfortably like ordinary citizens, and more money is being spent to fund over-crowded prisons while cuts are still hurting schools, according to Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott.

These issues already plague the average Californian, yet the governor still sees fit to cut healthcare for the poor while begging us to raise our taxes. What part of that sounds fair?   

Gov. Brown sees that the government’s mistakes are its people’s mistakes and we must face the consequences, “Money is not in the piggybank. It comes from the people…so when the money’s not there, government has to cut back or you have to borrow. The fact is California is living beyond its means. This is the day of reckoning,” he said.

Yes, tax money does come from “the people” but how it’s spent is up to state leaders, and now that we know our money did nothing but create more debt we must fix it ourselves by paying more money. We are ultimately paying for mistakes we had no hand in.

If there is any silver lining from Gov. Brown’s revised budget plan, it’s that education walked away unscathed, but only if we raise our taxes.

Raise taxes or lose future funding to education, health care and income. That is the dire choice we are left with. It’s almost like we’re doing the government’s job for it, causing our divide with the government to drift further which is not good in a democracy where trust is key.          

           

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