Posted on 11/01/2025 5:36:07 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Let’s say you paid top dollar to go to a fancy, five-star restaurant, and the waiter served you warmed-over McDonald’s. Would you ever go back?
Maybe, if you didn’t know any better.
I started thinking about that after I recently changed my residency from Virginia to California (for reasons I won’t go into) and noticed that my state income taxes had gone up by more than 33%.
Over the course of the year, I will pay California $2,115 more than I’d been paying in Virginia, which is hardly a low-tax state (Virginia has the 14th highest income tax burden in the country). Not only are income taxes higher, California’s sales tax is 66% higher, and the gasoline tax is almost double Virginia’s. Those are just the ones I know about.
So, I decided to look into what exactly I’m getting for the five-star cost of California’s government for basic services governments are expected to provide.
It’s infuriating. California is ripping off its taxpayers big time. Consider:
Crime: Despite having roughly the same number of police officers per capita, California has a “crime index” that is 47% higher than Virginia’s, and California has the sixth-highest rate of violent crime of all 50 states. Virginia has the 14th lowest.
Education: If you’re a teacher, California is a great place to live. They are the highest paid in the nation and have the fourth-lowest student-to-teacher ratio. But if you’re a parent? Your children are getting screwed. Eighth-grade reading, math, science, and writing scores are significantly below the national average, while Virginia’s are significantly higher. Virginia ranks 7 in average SAT scores, and California comes in 23rd.
Infrastructure: Despite having the nation’s highest gasoline taxes, California ranks in the bottom three when it comes to road conditions, with more than 25% of its roads in serious need of repair. In Virginia, just 9% of its roads are in poor shape.
Opportunity: How much economic opportunity are California’s sky-high taxes buying? None. The state ranks dead last in U.S. News and World Report’s “opportunity” ranking. And it ranks 47th in the Rich States, Poor States ranking of economic outlook.
It has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.5%, the most people on welfare, and the most homeless people.
It has the most progressive income tax yet is the fifth-worst state when it comes to income inequality. (Virginia comes in 29th on tax progressivity and 22nd on income inequality.)
It is the least affordable state for housing. Virginia is 35th.
Fiscal responsibility. Incredibly, despite the fact that California is one of the highest-tax states in the nation, it ranks No. 42 in U.S. News and World Report’s ranking for fiscal stability.
And it’s getting worse as out-of-control costs and the flight of hundreds of thousands out of the state have left yawning budget gaps. A new Reason Foundation study finds that California is almost half a trillion dollars in debt, which is more than twice New York’s. (Virginia is $35 billion in debt.)
And then there is the criminal amount of waste and fraud.
Gov. Gavin Newsom spent $37 billion to fight homelessness only to see the number of homeless climb from 151,000 in 2019 to about 187,000 today—prompting a federal criminal investigation.
The state’s Medicaid spending nearly doubled in six years, and almost one-half of that was due to free health care given to illegal immigrants.
The state lost $20 billion in COVID-19-related federal unemployment money—the most of any state.
In 2014, California voters overwhelmingly approved a $7.5 billion water bond proposal, nearly $3 billion of which was set aside to build new reservoirs. More than a decade later, not a single new reservoir has been built.
In 2018, former Gov. Jerry Brown signed a $1 billion bill that was supposed to improve land management to “prevent catastrophic wildfires and protect Californians.” In 2019, Newsom’s wildfire “strike force” said, “Over the next five years, the state will commit over $1 billion for critical fuel-reduction projects to support prescribed fire crews, forest thinning, and other forest health projects.”
Apparently, that money was completely wasted, as anyone looking at the burned-out Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods can attest.
And just this year, the state decided to dump $282 million it doesn’t have for a special election to gerrymander its congressional districts—a completely pointless exercise that will disenfranchise California voters and have no impact on the control of Congress. And then it spent another $2 million to correct a typo in its original voter guide.
So, the question I have for every Californian is: “What is wrong with you? Why do you put up with this? Why are you content to let California be a one-party state?”
Most of your leaders should be in jail, not winning reelection.
It’s true that over the past four years, more than a million more people moved out of the state than moved in. But what about those who can’t or don’t want to leave?
Why do you keep electing the same class of criminals to steal your money?
I think part of the problem is that Californians don’t know how badly they’re getting screwed, because, while everyone knows which restaurants are worth the price, it’s not easy for average citizens to make direct comparisons between life in one state and another.
I can leave the state just as easily as I came. But most can’t pick up and move. Nor should they have to. California is a beautiful state with enormous potential. Its citizens just need to refuse to pay Wolfgang Puck prices for Hamburglar-quality service.
Here is my guess why he moved to CA.
I think he inherited a house in CA and the overall numbers workout for a move to CA. He is a writer so it is likely he can work from home as a Heritage Foundation employee or consultant. He sells his Virginia house so he has some extra walking around money.
Umm try this out for an explanation.
Let’s pretend you live in gaza. 70% of your neighbors repeatedly vote hamas into power and cheer how they (hamas) are gonna get rid of the Jews. When they go for it, those same neighbors cheer them on — kinda like they did when the TwinTowers were destroyed.
You cannot afford to move. And, if you talk about making a change getting a nasty look is nothing compared to the reality of what will happen to you and your family.
CaCaLand is like that. Has been for decades. It has been a communist state for this time. This is what the rest of you will experience when Newscum is installed into the WHouse.
Full stop.
Yes! They love it!
That's why they keep voting for Democrat con-artists!
That's why they vote for Democrat con-artists (redundant phrase) when they move out of California!
Californians must pay for Rent a Mobs to keep all the protests going about something it ain’t cheap.
Two main events in California protests and marathons.
Yeah, yeah. yeah - we’ve heard this all before. The people in California like this stuff, because they keep voting for it.
I’m beginning to think that they don’t know any better so they just kick back and let it happen to them.
There needs to be much more of this. If CEOs are held criminally liable for the integrity of their companies’ books, then governors and other officials should be as well.
The best thing for California (and the rest of America) is for a gigantic earthquake to devour it into the ocean. I am hoping the big one comes soon and takes all of Mexico with it. /spit
As far as you know.
The Dems and their Media stooges just TELL you guys those are the numbers.
"It's Not Who Votes That Counts, It's Who Counts The Votes"
As a fellow Coloradoan, I am sure you notice the blue devils are doing everything they can to make Colorado as expensive in terms of property taxes and utilities as California.
Doesn’t the nation as a whole pick up the tab for his California income taxes?
I used to be a Coloradoan. I escaped to Florida.
the answer is The Argentinian Syndrome: “Argentina would be a paradise if it wasn’t for all the Argentinians.” ...
There is nothing that would ever get me to move to California. Both my wife and I have immediate family who live there and even that isn't enough for me to move there or my wife to move back to where she was born and raised.
The trick to living in California is to not produce anything.
“I do sincerely hope that Californians moving to other states don’t try to change those other states to California ways.”
Sadly they do! They’ve Californicated Oregon, Washington, Colorado and the latest ones are Arizona and Nevada.
IF HE CAN EASILY LEAVE-—DO SO. QUIT PUNISHING YOURSELF.
AFTER 29 YEARS IN SO CAL & OVER 12 IN N CALIF-—I BOLTED.
NOW HAVE OVER 5+++ ACRES-—quiet-—PROP TAXES OF $1025 & POWER BILLS AROUND $90 A MONTH. HOUSE/GARAGE/HORSES....
CLEAN AIR-—4 SEASONS -—NOT A HARSH WINTER-—
GOOD DEPUTIES-—CAN BUY GUNS A& AMMO ALL OVER. GOOD NEIGHBORS...
LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO DEAL WITH NEWSOM.
Our family has been here five generations, quite productively thank you.
HE CAN SELL AGAIN & GET ANOTHER CAPITAL GAINS EXEMPTION
$500,000 if MARRIED
$250,000 IF SINGLE
IF LIVED IN CURRENT PROPERTY 2 YEARS & 1 DAY MINIMUM....
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