Democrats now hold supermajority in California legislature: What could go wrong?

The ascendance of Democrats and their union backers may give more than a little pause to businesses and wealthy individuals, who now face higher taxes and the prospect of even more new taxes and regulations.

The state’s top personal income tax rate was already the second highest in the nation at 10.3 percent before Tuesday’s vote, and will now rise to 13.3 percent for the next seven years.

“Enabling the tax-and-spend majority in the capital to have carte blanche to heap new and unanticipated taxes on already struggling Californians gives us extraordinary concern,” said John Kabateck, California executive director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

Brown was quick to acknowledge the need for restraint. The former seminarian cited the Biblical story of Joseph and the pharaoh at a news conference Wednesday, in which Joseph told the pharaoh to prepare for lean years in times of plenty.