"Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine said the tax increase will further harm the depressed economy.
"We will be right back here in one year with the same problem," he said during the floor debate. "No economist argues increasing taxes especially during weak economic times is going to result in people adding payroll, in people getting back to work ... The opposite will happen."
Newly installed Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth warned about the crippling effects of passing the state's largest tax increase in California history."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090219/ap_on_bi_ge/california_budgetNo economist argues for increasing taxes during a recession.
At least if you don't count Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz (and 120 others)
"Some state-level policymakers contend that the weakness of the economy means that a state should rely solely on cutting spending, rather than raising taxes. But this one-dimensional approach is not based on sound economics.
Two highly regarded economists — Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University, and Peter Orszag, until recently director of the Congressional Budget Office and now the nominee to direct the federal Office of Management and Budget — wrote during the last recession that spending cuts could actually be more harmful for a state’s economy during a recession than tax increases. This assertion still holds true; Stiglitz recently reiterated the point in a letter (co-signed by 120 other economists) to New York’s governor David Paterson."
full article at
http://www.cbpp.org/1-8-08sfp.htm Not that I am cheering every tax increase. The article on California did not say which taxes were raised - progressive ones or regressive ones, but Republican lawmakers are so committed to voodoo economics, which has been shown to be a failure.