June 2002

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Guest Commentary 

Tom McClintock was first elected to the state Assembly in 1982 from Thousand Oaks, serving until 1992 when he was the Republican nominee for state controller. He was elected to the state Senate in 1996. He is the GOP candidate for state controller on the November ballot.

I want to compliment Senator Burton and the majority Democrats for recognizing, at least, the crushing effect that more than doubling the car tax would have on struggling families throughout California. That is a step in the right direction.

But they seemed to have missed the larger picture, and that's why I'd suggest that they return to the hearing room, but only after a huge sign is placed within the plain sight of each conferee: "IT'S THE SPENDING, STUPID."

Now, I'm going to set aside all the ideological issues involving boosting taxes through the roof, and simply raise a practical concern: IT WON'T WORK.

That was our experience in 1991. That is not a theoretical exercise. That was our practical experience the last time we went through this drill. We had the biggest tax increase by any state in American history – it was supposed to bring in over $8 billion of new revenues. Instead, our revenues barely budged. Those taxes broke the back of the economy, they turned a recession into a near depression and created budget deficits for many years into the future.

Now, between the Legislative Analyst and the Republican caucus, more than $10 billion in simple spending reductions were placed before the conference committee.  Simple reforms like conforming welfare eligibility to federal guidelines, reducing corporate welfare and weeding out obsolete or duplicative agencies.

Instead we have before us this piece of work. It's pretty clear they still don't get it.  This state is spending a larger portion of people's earnings than it has ever spent in its entire history – and it is delivering less with it than it's ever delivered in its entire history – and their only solution is to raise taxes. This state is spending almost twice per capita what the state of Arizona spends to deliver a vastly higher quality of services – and their only solution is to raise taxes.

Now, if spending growth during the Davis years had simply followed the combined rate of inflation and population growth, the budget would  still be 20 percent larger than it was when Gray Davis took office; 20 percent larger. But instead of all these tax increases we would instead have a $38 billion cumulative surplus. And instead of talking about what taxes we're going to raise on people, we would be talking instead about how do we rebate an average of $4,500 per every family in California.

So let me try again: this budget crisis is not the fault of taxpayers for not paying enough taxes. It is the fault of rampant waste and mismanagement practiced downstairs in the corner office.

And the only message of hope that I can offer to the people of California is this: we don't have to continue another four years down this road. We can't afford to. And if the people of California have finally had enough, we won't have to.