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CORRECTED: Senate “all-cuts” budget actually has a few tax hikes and tax breaks

• Published March 30, 2009

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Original March 30 post: The Senate budget proposal unveiled this morning as a "no-new-taxes" package includes a net increase of $138.3 million in new revenues.

And it's going to require a few Republican votes if majority Democrats hope to raise the extra money. That's because under Initiative 960, which voters approved in 2007, a two-thirds supermajority vote is needed to raise taxes and fees, and Democrats freely acknowledged today that their package will require GOP help.

But Sen. Rodney Tom, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said he thinks the mixture of tax cuts and tax increases will draw support from some Republicans when the entire package is brought to a vote.

"We’re going to need a two-thirds vote," Tom said after his press conference. "We think we’ll be able to get a two-thirds vote because of the balanced approach."

That should be an interesting test — since Republicans were planning to lock up today in the House to block a tax increase on phone charges aimed at raising money for enhanced 9-1-1 services. That vote is coming to the floor as I post this, as House Democrats try to put the GOP in a position of voting against public safety funding.

The GOP has argued from Day One this legislative session they believe a balanced budget can be achieved without new taxes.

Budget highlights made public by Senate Ways and Means Committee chair Margarita Prentice show that 30 pending bills are needed to implement the budget that she, Tom, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and two colleagues rolled out this morning. Here is a list of seven that call for tax increases and 10 that reduce taxes.

The tax increase list includes closures of tax exemptions such as Senate Bill 6062, which proposes to bring in $54 million by ending a break on the real-estate excise tax for banks that dispose of foreclosed properties. One other would bring in $36 million by ending a sales- and use-tax break for purchasers of hybrid-fuel vehicles.