New Tax Graveyard

The governor and the legislative leaders have been tamping down expectations that the Democrats - with a 2/3 "supermajority" in the legislature would be enacting new taxes.  For one thing, the supermajority is shaky at best.  One Democratic seat in the Senate recently became a GOP seat in a special election.  Some of the Democrats were elected in swing districts under the new top-2 primary system and might not vote with the majority on a tax increase.

Today's Capitol Alert blog of the Sacramento Bee reports:

Measures aimed at creating new taxes on Californians were held by the Senate Appropriations Committee today, making it extremely unlikely that taxes on cigarettes, soda, strip clubs, plastic bags or oil extraction will become law this year...

Full story at http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/tax-bills-fail-to-advance-out-of-california-senate-committee.html

Although there will be some debate about exactly how much revenue the state can expect in 2013-14 as the final budget is put together, it's unlikely that revenue will be enhanced by new taxes.

And as for those tax bills:

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/tax-bills-fail-to-advance-out-of-california-senate-committee.html#storylink=cpy