经济学人下载:加利福尼亚的预算

But then something odd occurred. California’s Republicans turned on the five. A party convention last weekend almost passed a resolution officially branding them “traitors”. Egged on by Grover Norquist and other tax-haters from Washington, many Republicans renewed their anti-tax “pledges”, which now seem to prohibit even a vote to let other people vote. Fearing for their careers, the five retreated.

但接着一些怪事发生了。加州的共和党员背叛了这五位共和党员。在上周一次党政集会中，他们几乎正式通过一项决议，将他们标榜为“叛徒”。受Grover Norquist和其他来自华盛顿的税收憎恶者怂恿，许多共和党员重新履行他们的反税收“誓约”。如今，这“誓约”似乎是阻止无记名投票的出现。由于害怕职位不保，这五个人退却了。

This led to some hand-wringing within California’s Republican Party. Only 31% of voters are now registered Republican. In last November’s election, when Republicans triumphed elsewhere, all statewide offices in California went to Democrats. The state party’s new chairman warned the convention that the party now speaks only “to the converted”. And yet, the party ended the same convention by resolving to block Mr Brown’s plan wholesale, opposing even the cuts.

这导致加州共和党员产生了一些绝望之情。目前该州选民只有31%登记为共和党员。在去年十一月选举中，当全国其他地方的共和党连连获胜时，加州各政府当权者都为民主党员。该州民主党新主席警告与会者说他们只同“改变观念的人”说话。然而，该党在相同的集会中却决定全盘否决布朗的提案，甚至反对削减支出方案。

So Mr Brown’s bipartisan figleaf is blowing in the wind. It looks as though it will be too late now to get the tax extension onto the June ballot. Mr Brown could still use a legal loophole to force it on with a simple majority (ie, Democrats only), but that would look bad. He could also go the longer route and let other sponsors collect signatures to put the vote on a November ballot. But this would mean that California will enter its next fiscal year, once again, without any budget at all.

因此，布朗的两党同甘共苦的想法付诸东流。目前来看，似乎已经赶不上在六月份就延长税收进行无记名投票。布朗还是可以利用法律漏洞以绝对优势（即只需民主党的支持）强制推行，但将造成不良影响。他也可以选择一条更漫长的征途，让其他赞助商寻找支持者，于九月进行无记名投票。但这也意味着，加州将再一次在没有任何预算下进入新财政年度。