Mr. Schwarzenegger, I am a 38 year old single man living and working in Torrance, California. I live in a studio apartment and make about $45,000 a year. I voted for you in the 2003 recall of Governor Grey Davis. I did this because of your promise to hold the line on spending in Sacramento and to never raise taxes on Californians. I believed you did this out of a serious fiscally conservative ideology that I was led to believe you had. I also voted for you in 2003 because I thought you of all people would be a person who would fight for the people of California against what I saw (and still see) what was (and still is) happening in the California legislature. I thought you would be the concrete wall that would hold up under the brunt of the Democrats in the legislature who continually spend more than they take in in taxes.

With the announcement of your budget compromise, I have been proven wrong. You want to increase sales taxes by $.01 which will generate (you hope) $5 billion every year. That is $5 billion that the ordinary tax-payers of California simply do not have. I'm sure you realize that California has the highest sales tax rate (7.25%) in the country. I'm sure you realize that Los Angeles sales taxes are at least 8.25% and in some areas of this county they are even higher. I'm sure you know that Los Angeles county voters are probably also going to vote on an initiative to raise sales taxes another half cent in order to fund mass transit projects. With everything taken into account, that will be an almost 10% sales tax if your proposed budget gets passed. Do you really think that in a slowing economy that Californians should be forced to pay nearly 10% on all products they buy? I have also learned that in order to get your tax plan passed, you are willing to allow sales taxes to be charged on services such as hair cuts, Internet service and lawyer services. Why do we have to pay a tax on things that we traditionally have never had to pay taxes on? I do know that the $.01 sales tax increase will be temporary in your budget and will be lowered in three years. When was the last time you saw any temporary tax actually ended? I know I am only 38, but I have never seen that. Government always finds a way to make such "temporary" sales taxes permanent. And with a legislature dominated by tax-and-spend liberals there is simply no way they will ever let that tax increase end. Besides, you will be out of office eventually because this is your last term. You will not have to deal with the results of your tax increase and the likelyhood that it will become permanent.

You have said in the past that you do not want Californians to have to pay for the "mistakes" of past legislatures and governors. Why is it now necessary for you to make us pay for the same mistakes that have been made since you took office? You have been in office for 5 years. You have signed several bloated budgets with ever-increasing amounts of spending in them. You are the last person who gets to see the budget and either approve or reject them. You had to have clearly seen that the budgets that the legislature passed spent too much money. Why didn't you reject them? I know you now see yourself as a "compromiser" on this issue. But I did not elect you in 2003 to be a compromiser. I elected you to hold the line on spending and not raise our taxes (see concrete comment above).

Because you are a famous actor, body builder and politician, you do not know exactly what ordinary Californians go through having to go to work every day, pay their bills and generally try to live a normal life. You do not know that the vast majority of us do not think of the state government all that much. We do not wake up and think about how the government is going to improve our lives. I understand some people in California do. People represented by the public employee unions probably do. One of the other reasons I voted for you in 2003 was because of your promise to stand up to these unions and do what was best for all Californians. That is yet another promise you have failed to keep. They continue to complain anytime "cuts" are proposed to any program that involves them and run ads in newspapers and TV saying that services will be cut because of budget cuts. Why have you not kept your promise to reign them in? Another thing, these unions represent a small fraction of the total California population. Why do I, and the majority of Californians, have to be bullied by a minority of workers in this state?

Another one of the several reasons I voted for you in 2003, was because of your promise to go to Washington and demand payment from the Federal Government for the services that illegal immigrants take from this state, another promise you failed to keep. This state pays at least $10 billion in services to people who should not be here. They take up spaces in overextended hospital emergency rooms. They drive on our freeways without driver's licenses. They get their children educated in our schools taking up valuable space that should be used for the children of citizens. In addition, money is spent in this state to incarcerate illegal alien criminals. Do you really think that California's citizens must be forced to pay for people who should not be in this country? And, isn't it time to actually force the Federal Government to pay for incarcerating illegal alien prisoners as they are obliged to do by law?

The final point I will bring up is that a sales tax is not like any other tax. Income, capital gains and other taxes do not impact middle and lower income earners nearly as much as a sales tax. A sales tax is charged on all goods (and if you get your way services), that we purchase. This will have a bigger impact on the middle class and even more so on the lower class. As I said above, I make about $45,000 a year in income. At that income level and because I live in state that has an already high cost of living, I am poor. I do manage to pay my bills and feed myself, but I have very little left after I do these things. Is it right for the government to raise taxes on people like me who basically live paycheck to paycheck? Recently I started looking for jobs in other states. I am doing this partially because of the high cost of living in California. A budget that includes a sales tax increase will make me consider even more seriously moving out of California to a state that doesn't cost as much to live in. I am willing to accept a lower income than what I currently receive because I know that I can do more with the money that I make. I understand that I am just one person. I understand that this is just one situation. But, I know I am not the only one who makes my income, or close to it. I know I am not the only one who lives paycheck to paycheck. I know I am not the only one who is considering a move out of California because of the high cost of living. And, I know I am not the only person who would consider a sales tax increase a further reason to consider moving out of this state.