Every year, Sacramento and city halls across California find new ways to squeeze more money out of taxpayers. Property taxes creep up, sales taxes increase, and new local levies are dreamed up—often in the name of “equity” initiatives or DEI programs that rarely deliver real value for the vast majority of working Californians. While bureaucrats expand their pet projects, middle-class families are left footing the bill.

Now, with budget negotiations heating up in Washington, there is a renewed push by some California lawmakers to raise the SALT deduction cap, so wealthy taxpayers can write off even more of their ever-increasing local tax bills. This isn’t a solution; it’s a band-aid that hides the root problem—our state’s addiction to overspending and ever-bigger government.

Let’s be clear: increasing the SALT cap is a handout to local politicians who refuse to say “no” to new spending. It allows them to keep raising taxes and expanding programs, knowing that federal taxpayers in other states will absorb part of the pain. That is not fiscal responsibility. That is not fairness. And it’s not how America should work.

If we want real change, it’s up to Californians to push back. We must demand that our elected officials get serious about cutting wasteful spending and focus on core services like public safety, infrastructure, and education. We need to stop rewarding politicians who promise everything to everyone, then send us the bill. And if they won’t listen, it’s time to vote them out and elect leaders who understand that government should live within its means—just like the rest of us do.

The answer isn’t to shift the burden to taxpayers in Texas, Florida, or Ohio. The answer is to fix what’s broken in our own backyard. Congress must pass a budget bill without SALT increases, and Californians must demand real fiscal responsibility from our local and state leaders. Enough is enough.

The post Congress Must Pass a Budget Bill—Without SALT Increases. Californians Need to Demand Fiscal Responsibility at Home appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Lawmakers have struggled to get to this point as the current budget year winds to a close at month’s end. At the urging of the most conservative members of his conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had linked temporary funding with a mandate that would have compelled states to require proof of citizenship when people register to vote.

But Johnson could not get all Republicans on board even as the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, insisted on that package. Trump said Republican lawmakers should not support a stop-gap measure without the voting requirement, but the bill went down to defeat anyway, with 14 Republicans opposing it.

Bipartisan negotiations began in earnest shortly after that, with leadership agreeing to extend funding into mid-December. That gives the current Congress the ability to fashion a full-year spending bill after the Nov. 5 election, rather than push that responsibility to the next Congress and president.

In a letter to Republican colleagues, Johnson said the budget measure would be “very narrow, bare-bones” and include “only the extensions that are absolutely necessary.”

“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Johnson wrote. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”

Rep. Tom Cole, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, had said on Friday that talks were going well.

“So far, nothing has come up that we can’t deal with,” said Cole, R-Okla. “Most people don’t want a government shutdown and they don’t want that to interfere with the election. So nobody is like, ‘I’ve got to have this or we’re walking.’ It’s just not that way.”

Johnson’s earlier effort had no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate and was opposed by the White House, but it did give the speaker a chance to show Trump and conservatives within his conference that he fought for their request.

The final result — government funding effectively on autopilot — was what many had predicted. With the election just weeks away, few lawmakers in either party had any appetite for the brinksmanship that often leads to a shutdown.

Now a bipartisan majority is expected to push the short-term measure over the finish line. Temporary spending bills generally fund agencies at current levels, but some additional money was included to bolster the Secret Service, replenish a disaster relief fund and aid with the presidential transition, among other things.

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