Enough is enough. On Monday night, the California Legislature came one vote short of finally passing a budget for the state. Because of its failure to pass the budget, Gov. Schwarzenegger will be forced to lay off around 10,000 state employees and halt projects already in progress, such as earthquake-proofing bridges in Los Angeles.
The Legislature’s failure to pass this budget has largely been the fault of Republicans in the California Legislature who are opposed to the $14-billion overall tax increase intended to help raise revenue to combat the $42-billion state deficit. While at times it may seem admirable for Republicans to stick to their guns on key issues, at this point they are obstructing the state’s ability to function. Rather than continuing to oppose the proposed budget on ideological grounds, Republicans in Sacramento should allow the budget to go through so that our state can be taken off life support.
Consider the state of California today. Due to budget cuts stemming from the state deficit, the state’s higher education system is beyond capacity in terms of how many students it can effectively educate. IOUs have been sent out to state employees because the state can’t pay its salaries. Despite all of these troubles, state Republicans seem just as happy to let it go on, so long as they avoid any kind of tax increase.
These are not the times to place partisanship before practicality. The fact that Republicans won’t budge isn’t defending California’s interests ““ they’re tossing them aside for some twisted belief that party should come before state.