I have a relative who just got a layoff notice from the community college where she works in Ft. Bragg. It's just a little speck compared to Berkeley, but they've been devastated too. The most striking part about this story to me is that, had Prop 30 not passed, we'd be seeing headlines about the largest deficit in state history, and even more cuts coming to education, social services, etc.
Imagine that: this is the very thing Republicans scream bloody murder about, over and over and over. There's NOTHING on the planet more important to Republicans than low taxes. As a result, we in California have had year after year of record budget shortfalls, with family-ruining layoffs, budget sleight-of-hand to make the numbers work out each year, and fewer and fewer services offered by the state. Now we've raised the sales tax by one quarter of one percent, and we raised income taxes on rich people. Poof, bang, bam, and the deficit is gone. No doubt, we still need to climb out of the hole we're in, but for the first time in recent memory, we have an easily balanced budget. What did it cost? Well, my Starbucks coffee costs about a penny more than it used to. And if I ever start grossing a quarter million dollars per year, I'll have to pay a little more in income taxes. That's it. Our budgetary problems have been mostly resolved with a tax hike that just isn't going to hurt anyone, especially the whiny rightwingers who complain about it the most.
The Republicans' worst nightmare has come true--a tax increase was enacted, the tax increase fixed almost all of our fiscal problems, and no one is worse off for it.
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