After what was described in the Sac Bee as "hard lobbying" from the governor's office, the California Taxpayers Association has endorsed Arnold's plan to balance the budget with a temporary sales tax increase that becomes a reckless and nonsensical sales tax /cut/ - below the current level - in 2011.

The 82-year-old association is a nonprofit representing all taxpayers, but some of California's largest corporations dominate its sizable board of directors, which voted 28-19 on Friday to back the proposal...

"As an association representing taxpayers, we have not arrived at our position lightly," CTA President Teresa Casazza said in a statement. "Given the current circumstances, however, we can support a temporary sales tax increase as long as it is accompanied by meaningful budget reform, an economic stimulus plan and a future reduction in the sales tax rate that will make the change a net tax reduction over time."

A long-term reduction in the tax is only a good idea if it is replaced with another source of revenue - a restored Vehicle License Fee, higher taxes on the wealthy, closure of corporate tax loopholes. Otherwise it's yet another measure designed to ensure our budget and therefore our government are broken and unable to properly deliver the core services Californians need.

Arnold is clearly hoping this will give Republicans cover to vote for his plan and end the budget crisis. But the Republicans are still in thrall to the most extreme members of the right wing, and continue to reject this plan:

"It doesn't change our position at all," Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis said of the Cal-Tax endorsement. "I mean, Cal-Tax, I'm not exactly sure what the organization is supposed to do, but if it looks like a tax and it sounds like a tax, it is a tax, regardless of what Cal-Tax or anybody else calls it."

Villines and Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said Schwarzenegger's office lobbied Cal-Tax's corporate board members hard over several weeks to get the endorsement.

"We think it's unfortunate, and we don't think it really changes a thing because the votes are not there in the Legislature, quite frankly," Coupal said. "We'll see. It's disappointing that Cal-Tax folded under the pressure, but the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association will never do so."

Cal-Tax may have 82 years of experience, but it's the Howard Jarvis Association that calls the shots in the California Republican Party. And they won't be happy until the state's public schools are closed or its health care centers go out business.

Only a voter revolt against the Republican legislators who put the Howard Jarvis Association ahead of everyone else in this state will bring this hostage crisis to an end.