In a move that no one should find the least bit shocking, Democratic lawmakers in California have decided to try and get their greedy little hands on the tax savings businesses in the state will receive thanks to the GOP tax reform plan.

A proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment by Assemblymen Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would create a tax surcharge on California companies making more than $1 million so that half of their federal tax cut would instead go to programs that benefit low-income and middle-class families.

“Trump’s tax reform plan was nothing more than a middle-class tax increase,” Ting said in a statement. “It is unconscionable to force working families to pay the price for tax breaks and loopholes benefiting corporations and wealthy individuals. This bill will help blunt the impact of the federal tax plan on everyday Californians by protecting funding for education, affordable health care, and other core priorities.”

As much as California would love to continue playing Sheriff of Nottingham, it won’t be an easy climb. They’ve lost their supermajority that could push the legislation through to the governor because several state lawmakers are under investigation for sexual misconduct (also not shocking).

If they manage to to get it to the governor’s desk and he signs it, the voters then have final approval.

Which raises the question: what voters in their right minds would voluntarily hand over half their tax savings back to the coffers of government? Especially since the voters in that state, according to a 2016 report from The Daily Wire, live under:

• $118.7 billion in total debt.
• $785.72 billion in unfunded liabilities and other retirement benefits.
• $250 in surplus per capita.

It’s a hard sell. But that hasn’t stopped Ting from trying to spin it into some kind of boon to the middle class because they won’t be burdened with having to pay for their own social programs.

At what point will Ting figure out that making the state pay for expensive social programs is what got California into the deficit mess it finds itself in? What the voters decide to do about the amendment proposal will speak volumes about California’s fiscal future.