And just when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was becoming a hometown hero for firing a bunch of state workers and cutting pay for even more. Now he goes and proposes a tax increase.

We suggested not long ago that if state Sen. Bob Beers and conservative activist Chuck Muth learned that the California governor was slashing and burning because the Golden State’s Legislature had yet to pass a budget, they’d wonder why Nevada wasn’t doing the same to deal with its budget crisis.

But now, our beloved home state is turning once more to that tried-and-true answer to a gaping budget hole: An increase of 1 cent in the sales tax, supposedly only to last three years.

Granted, California’s budget is bigger, deficit is wider, and governor is less skanky than Nevada’s, but when push comes to shove, reality breaks through and the state does what it must to keep services flowing to the millions of residents in the nation’s most populous (and popular!) state.

We will shortly be visiting California, and, even though it won’t be in effect yet, we’d still be glad to pay that extra penny on the purchase of, oh, let’s say, a box of Avo Intermezzo cigars there at the Tinder Box in South Coast Plaza. Why? We believe in a little thing called civilization, that’s why, and we know it’s not free.

Now if only we could smoke those Intermezzos in a bar in California. The search for civilization continues…