California Democrats present plan to tax California's wealthy

The L.A. Times reports:

Democratic lawmakers presented a plan late Tuesday night to impose $9.7 billion in new taxes on the wealthy and corporations to avoid the cuts to government services in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan.

Republicans, who hold enough votes to block a budget from passing, vowed to fight it.

But a week after the state blew its deadline for enacting a spending plan, the proposal offers the first glimpse at how the Democrats who control the Legislature would go about eliminating a deficit that has soared to $15.2 billion.

Most of the new revenue would come from an income tax hike.

A dependent-care credit currently available to all Californians also would be eliminated for families with an income of more than $150,000.

"Californians want this budget mess fixed," said Assembly Budget Committee Chairman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz). "This, in essence, fixes California's budget problem. Any other alternative keeps deficits going into the future and balances the budget on the backs of school kids, health clinics and transit riders."

Income taxes on families earning more than $321,000 would go up by 7.5%. Joint filers earning more than $642,000 would see an 18% hike.

California has a big spending problem.