The never-ending quest for higher sales and property taxes is driven by city and county governments that have never had to downsize/reorganize in order to become more efficient.
Overly generous pensions also factor in heavily.
But since you can only tax “so much,” they can only delay the pain for “so long.”
Eventually, cities and county governments have to recognize that not every file clerk is needed, and certainly isn’t worth a 7 figure retirement pension.
Bankruptcies will help speed up that day of reckoning.
Re: Pensions. You got that right. I’ve heard that the 50% of Californians that are gainfully employed are paying the pensions of the 50% who are retired and that 90% of those who’ve retired from government jobs retired before the age of fifty. An exaggeration no doubt, but not much of one.