That’s Debatable:

This year’s state budget is late again. It’s becoming a tradition for state lawmakers to tussle over the spending plan well into the summer. This year, it could cost the state a great deal more as the ailing economy makes short-term financing more expensive. It could also hurt service providers that typically borrow money until the state passes a budget. What are you doing to help break the stalemate?

Majority Democrats want to increase spending by $3 billion and raise taxes by $10 billion. Californians can’t afford more of the same broken big government.

I have offered ideas to reduce spending on wasteful programs, such as eliminating the $150 million a year we spend to subsidize college for illegal immigrants and other foreign nationals. This program was started in 2001, and we should end it.

When the Democrats in charge realize that Republicans are serious about not raising taxes, we can work on a budget that lives within our means.

Chuck DeVore

Assemblyman

(R-Newport Beach)

California needs a realistic state budget that cuts wasteful government spending and gets us back on track for economic success.

Tax increases are not the answer to our budget problems. When then-Gov. Wilson increased taxes in 1992, state revenues declined.

Instead, Republicans have proposed a spending limit that will control state spending and create a rainy-day reserve for the future. We’ve also proposed an education budget plan that will give our schools a year-over-year increase in funding — without raising taxes or increasing the deficit.

Van Tran

Assemblyman

(R-Costa Mesa)

Orange County is charged for a disproportionate amount of California’s spending. Realizing this, I’ve held local advisory committees with community leaders and communicated in Sacramento the need to protect our local economy.

My Republican colleagues and I have introduced a package of budget reform measures to allow the state to live within its means. I introduced Senate Constitutional Amendment 8, which if enacted, would invoke a spending limit plan that will force the state to live within its means and prohibit the Legislature from overspending.

Reforming the budget process is essential to the state’s fiscal health.

Tom Harman

Senator

(R-Huntington Beach)