Facebook to Google Say NSA Spying Bill is Unacceptable

[JDPriestly]

35. Republcan governors in California meant that instead of raising taxes to cover costs,

our state borrowed. We accumulated far too much debt. Jerry Brown had to pay it off. He sponsored a referendum on raising taxes. As a majority, we voted yes for higher taxes. And now our state is getting out of debt and moving along.

The problem with the mantra of "never raise taxes" is that the economy changes, and old ways of raising taxes don't necessarily work in a new economy.

Sales taxes had to go up because with people buying things in ways that are not subject or not easily subject to sales taxes, the revenue from those taxes did not cover the state services and projects we needed. So we voted to raise the sales tax a bit and to raise taxes on the very rich.