SACRAMENTO – Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, R-Rocklin, today issued the following statement in response to the Legislature’s passage of the so called budget trailer bills Wednesday afternoon:

“This is another budget that spends billions more than we are taking in and does nothing to cure the long-term problems that are killing our state. We need to focus on the basics – our children, our schools, public safety – the traditional responsibilities that government should provide at a reasonable cost to taxpayers.

Democrats spent the last two weeks fighting over reductions to welfare and did not protect our classrooms from the Governor’s trigger cuts. It shows just how misguided the priorities of Democrats truly are when they target schools for 99 percent of trigger cuts yet fail to pass bipartisan pension reforms.

And to top it all off, the whole plan depends on a ten-billion dollar tax increase to pay for the growth in government. California is already one of the highest-tax states in the country and this would only make it worse. We need spending discipline, not tax increases. This budget is the wrong formula for our state and I cannot support it.”

Assemblywoman Beth Gaines represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes portions of Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento and Alpine counties.