On The Budget: Will Norquist Always Win?
By Peter Schrag
It’s a measure of California’s dysfunctional government that a lot of people are hoping for the success of Gov. Jerry Brown’s split-the-baby resolution of the state’s budget mess. But last month’s comprehensive review from the California Budget Project should remind us that Brown’s remedy is light years short of adequate.
As Grover Norquist, the small government “starve the beast” head of Americans for Tax Reform, threatens to destroy Republicans who vote to put Brown’s taxes on the ballot, many of us are reluctantly pushing for preservation of the half-starved beast that Norquistism has already left us with.
Even if Brown gets his five-year tax extension, the CBP points out that the gap between revenues and the requirements of even the current shrunken level of public services will return when the tax extensions expire after 2014-15.
