[NormsRevenge]

Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, is a member of the California Assembly.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I am still confused, Why did California fire Davis and hire Arnold Kennedy?

[lowbridge]

bump

[GSlob]

"When is a "tax" a "fee?"- when you can legally and without much effort wriggle yourself out of paying it. Social Security is a tax [the Amish do not pay it, true, but it took them quite an effort to get to that status]. Toll on a road is a fee, as long as there are secondary, non-toll roads which you could take instead.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

"Not Yours To Give" -- Davy Crockett's Lesson in Government Benevolence
http://www.house.gov/paul/nytg.htm

[Popocatapetl]

I have an easy solution to California's budget woes.

Fines instead of jail time.

For example, if you were a middle or upper middle class person, who for the first time had been arrested for DUI, how much money would you pay to NOT go to jail for several months?

$10,000? $20,000? $30,000?

Annually, California has about 130,000 DUI *convictions*! If only 25% of these are both "1st time DUI", and able to pay, California would earn close to a BILLION dollars.

On JUST DUI.

Now think of all the other embarrassing offenses committed by the middle and upper middle classes. Non-violent offenses that they could pay whopping big fines for instead of going to jail.

So not only does California get a huge influx of income, but it also saves a huge amount of money by NOT incarcerating people in expensive jails.

If California chose this system over spending money to put people in jail, it could probably balance its budget with just a dozen crimes turned into fines.

[SierraWasp]

But the governor called Angelides' "fee" a "tax," so a "tax" it was. Now that Schwarzenegger is proposing a government health plan that is $5 billion larger than Angelides' proposal, Schwarzenegger has decided to call his three new taxes "fees."

I haven't perused the thread yet. Has FO(FouledOut) and 68Grut seen this yet? Ok, now I'll go look...

[WFTR]

Another way to reduce healthcare costs is to make those who employ illegal aliens pay for their healthcare costs. Of course, if the true costs of having these people here were considered and employers forced to pay, they wouldn't be such a bargain anymore.

[goldstategop]

HSA accounts would be cheaper. The government could contribute a matching amount of $2,000 to every Californian to open their own tax free account to which they would be required to invest $100.00 a month. Think of it as a forced savings plan for catastrophic health expenses. That's all most people really need and they shouldn't be forced to buy a health insurance policy they don't want or can't afford. Its certainly more bang for the dollar than Arnold's plan and doesn't require new taxes or a gargantuan new bureaucracy to administer it.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Tzimisce]

It's like everything else on the left:

It's not a "tax" cause we're not going to call it that. (We prefer "fee".)

It's not a "baby" cause we're not going to call it that. (We prefer "fetal tissue".)

It's not "terrorism" cause we're not going to call it that. (We prefer "freedom fighter".)

[rawcatslyentist]

The last "R" Gov of La. did the same thing. Got rid of utility and food taxes, replaced them with an income tax. Then we got a lot of new "Fees" not taxes "Fees" added to food and utilities.

Good luck Mexifornicans.

[reg45]

It's not a tax, it's an oxygen usage fee.