The Black Hole of California gets a little blacker

Falling corporate profits gouge a wider hole in California budget:

California's budget problems deepened today as the state reported that tax receipts plummeted nearly $1 billion last month due to plunging corporate profits.

The news comes as the state moves closer to the July 1 deadline for lawmakers to close California's budget gap, which had earlier been estimated at $16.5 billion. There is little agreement in the Capitol about how to go about doing that.

We've only just begun. Sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes. All were enormously inflated in Greenspan's bubble, and now they are beginning to fall. Try to raise taxes to cover the gap, and you'll only drive more businesses out of this already high-tax state.

This is Governor Schwarzenegger's fault. He ran on a platform of budget reform, and then he turned his back on reform and became the biggest spender in the history of the state. He has painted California into a corner.

Let's recall Schwarzenegger and bring back Gray Davis. He wasn't half this bad.