From the Union-Tribune:

An Assembly Democratic state budget plan based on a $15 billion lottery bond and a $6.4 billion tax increase was greeted yesterday by distant cannon fire.

Or at least a critical news release.

The Democratic plan to give schools an additional $2.3 billion and avoid deep cuts in health and welfare programs proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could lead to a lengthy budget deadlock.The plan calls for a $6.4 billion package to close as-yet unidentified “loopholes and tax breaks” that can raise revenue “without impacting ordinary Californians or harming the economy.”

But Republican legislators, who must provide a handful of votes in each house for the two-thirds approval needed to pass a budget and tax increases, have vowed to oppose taxes increases.

“It is irresponsible for the liberal majority to make hard-working Californians pay for their overspending with tax increases,” Assembly Republican Mike Villines of Clovis said in a news release.

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