Voters, alive

Via Drudge it looks as though the tax-payers of California had the joyous opportunity to raise their own taxes and destroy their own lives. Not surprisingly, they demurred:

An angry electorate soundly defeated a slate of special election budget measures Tuesday, a decision that left Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers holding virtually nothing but a scalpel to deal with California's $21.3 billion shortfall.

Schwarzenegger and lawmakers called the special election in February as part of a plan to solve a $42 billion deficit that had been projected through mid-2010. '

They asked California voters consider a complex mix of spending reforms, higher taxes, borrowing and funding shifts.

Most of the measures were losing by wide margins, with at least 60 percent of voters rejecting them, according to partial returns.

Lest one think the voters were not paying attention, what with all of their "anger":

Voters approved just one of the six propositions, a measure prohibiting pay raises for lawmakers and other state elected officials during deficit years.

Can't wait to see how the "people enjoy paying higher taxes/taxes are the cost of a civil society" brigades spin this one.