Schwarzenegger Urges Voters To Accept Spending Cuts Or Face Tax Hikes

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

06 September 2005

Californian state Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has warned that he will have no option but to raise taxes if voters fail to accept the tough spending controls contained in his Proposition 76.

The controversial measure, the centrepiece of the Governor's ballot agenda for the November 8 special election, would impose new spending limits across the board, including on education and health care.

However, the proposal is not popular, and according to a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, more than six in ten likely voters are opposed to the idea, with less than three in ten supportive of the measure. Other critics also caution that the measure would give the Governor too much control over spending issues.

But in a recent radio address in Sacramento on Friday, Schwarzenegger warned that the electorate's failure to accept the measures would leave him no option but to raise taxation - reversing his hitherto tough anti-tax hike policy.

"I tell people vote yes on Proposition 76 and make sure that we do everything that we can to pass this proposition so that we force our legislators once and for all to live within their means and not to continue spending money and to keep making promises to people that they can't keep," he stated.

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