THAT’S DEBATABLE:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing for an increase of the sales tax by 1 1/2 cents along with new fees on alcohol and the oil industry as well as deep cuts in services to overcome a budget hole that could swell to more than $24 billion by mid-2010. How should the state cure its budget ills?

Since 2003 Gov. Schwarzenegger has grown government at fast clip. Rather than increasing sales tax collections by more than 21% in a weak economy, the governor should first seek to eliminate or reduce newly enacted government programs.

I am proposing once again to lift the state’s de facto ban on extracting oil from our territorial waters using slant-drill methods to get at the one billion barrels of oil we know about off our coast. We can do this without any new offshore rigs. We can securitize future royalties to generate $7 billion for our budget this year.

Chuck DeVore

Assemblyman

(R-Newport Beach)

The assumption that California has turned over every cushion and that all expenditures are being used in a prudent manner is absurd. Forcing new taxes on an already overly taxed state is not the solution and will only compound the problem.

For more than a decade, our state’s answer to every fiscal problem has been to borrow or tax more. In 2003, the people said enough and demanded comprehensive reform, but were delivered more debt and spending.

The status quo is not working. To survive, California must bring an end to unnecessary government growth, limit borrowing, and stop spending money we do not have.

Tom Harman

State Senator

(R-Huntington Beach)

Raising taxes is the worst thing we could do right now. It will devastate an economy that is hanging on by a thread, prolong the recession, threaten jobs and hurt working families.

There is enough waste and inefficiency in our state government that could be cut to enable California to live within our means and still invest in education.

Parolees convicted of serious crimes should not be released into neighborhoods in response to the state’s budget problems. Raising taxes on oil production will only lead to less oil produced in California and more dependence on foreign oil.

California needs to cut the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrant felons, make our state conform to President Clinton’s modest federal welfare reforms and end the in-state tuition to illegal immigrants before even considering more arbitrary, haphazard and massive tax hikes or cuts to education.

Van Tran

Assemblyman