Sonoma County GOP SLAMS the Governor

Contact: Matthew Heath, Communications
Phone: 707-542-7066
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 11, 2008


We Republicans Censure Governor Schwarzenegger,as he Terminates his own “No New Taxes” Pledge

Santa Rosa, Ca:

Across the nation and around the world, the media is touting President-Elect Obama as the “transformational” political figure of our time; but they are unjustly overlooking an extraordinary political transformation which has occurred right here in California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who began his political life as a tax-cutting reformer dedicated to dissecting the California budget and ridding it of its irresponsible and out-of-control spending programs and mandates and as an enemy of Big Taxes, has reached across the aisle and found his true niche as just another, run-of-the-mill tax and spend liberal. 

The rumor mill has been churning out dark hints that the seemingly perpetual budget deficit had perplexed the “Governator” and was causing him to have second thoughts about continuing to play “Terminator” to the plans of his former political enemies on the left. All doubts were ended, however, when Schwarzenegger issued a statement on November 6 that he intended to up the sales tax by 1.5 percent - a whopping 20 percent increase in the state mandated portion of the tax - and expand its applicability to previously immune transactions, ranging from automobile and appliance repairs to veterinarian services.

Of particular note for those living in California’s wine country, Schwarzenegger proposed an extravagant new excise tax on beer, wine, and spirits, adding an additional 25 cents a bottle to the existing 20 cents a gallon excise for wine. According to the Wine Business Insider, an industry publication, this “… would equate to a tax on wine grape growers of $217 a ton of grapes, more than the average cost per ton for the majority of wine grapes grown in California.”

Schwarzenegger was right when he said back in 2003 that raising taxes would kill the California economy, cause the business engines of our economic success to migrate, and place an unreasonable burden on middle class taxpayers. Sales and excise taxes are grossly regressive - they take more money from the poor than from the rich - and they artificially raise prices of goods and services provided by California businesses that are already in trouble in a challenging market environment. To offset such costs, California businesses will begin, once again, to leave the state, or lay off employees to reduce expenses. The Governor has already provided the words for his own epitaph as a political failure, for these new tax schemes will only result in reduced State revenues. 

Republicans in the North Bay are also wondering where the California Republican Party stands on this new assault on the pocketbooks of Californians. So far, the silence from the California Republican Party leadership is deafening.

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