Posted on 03/17/2009 9:34:28 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
California taxpayers have already been brutalized with big hikes in income, car and sales taxes in the budget deal approved last month.
Now, even before these increases kick in on April 1, along comes word that the budget is still $8 billion in the red over the next 16 months – and a whole new round of economy-killing tax hikes is in the works.
A San Francisco Chronicle report detailed pending bills to raise taxes yet again on income, cigarettes, alcohol, oil production and more. One bill would even allow cities and counties to assess their own income taxes and vehicle fees. As hard as it is to fathom, this tax mania is only going to intensify as the year goes along.
In coming months, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is expected to push to vastly broaden the state sales tax to cover professional services such as car repairs, dry cleaning, entertainment tickets and much more. We will be told this is “reform” because it means the state would rely less on volatile revenue sources such as income and capital gains taxes.
This is madness, not reform. State leaders' focus should be on spending, not revenue. The conventional wisdom about the budget compromise – that it had more spending cuts than tax hikes – is wrong.
Instead, more than half the $15 billion in “cuts” were actually a reduction in projected future spending increases. If federal aid is large enough, actual cuts might be mostly canceled.
The state government can readily handle such cuts. Consider the Sacramento Bee report that the state has added roughly 2,000 jobs since last June even as the budget picture went from grim to catastrophic. So much for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's claim to have implemented a hiring freeze.
Or consider that Census Bureau figures showed that the number of state and K-12 full-time employees went from 718,897 in 1997 to 894,678 in 2007. This 24 percent increase came even as large private-sector bureaucracies continued their productivity revolution, doing as much or more with far fewer workers.
This vast growth in state government should be reversed – not just stopped. Now, that would be reform.
In the meantime, we are happy to report that proposition king Ted Costa of People's Advocate is preparing a measure that targets excessive spending. The establishment thinks the real budget problem is that it's difficult to raise taxes. We very much look forward to the public's verdict.
California has had plenty of voter revolts. The time is ripe for one against government spending.
Never happen w/o flushing out the State House and Legislature.
California got what they voted for.
The problem is we really don’t. You get your congressman, sentator and maybe governor so no matter how conservative you vote where you live - you cannot seem to make a difference.
Agreed.
At least I think those of us in south Orange County are safe from city income taxes.
I hope we go under. I don’t see any other way.
California’s Civil Serpents strike again...
California got what they voted for.
So did half the United States.
I’m guessing there are a few million illegals in CA soaking up
a few billion every year. Fix that and a few other entitlements and they can squeak by I’m sure.
Florida is turning into MexiFornia and the state is run by RINOs.
We all must work like slaves to insure the illegals have ENDLESS freebies.
“California got what they voted for.”
What state do you live in where you get everything you voted for???
They vote for it and spent their way into it let them tax their way into it further. Eventually maybe they will learn. Hopefully all of those tax burdens will cause california to fall into the pacific.
“This is madness, not reform”....
What do you expect? The mad as a hatter idiots in Sacramentos only solution is to raise taxes! They will never cut anything of importance! This crap will blow up in their faces!
Unfortunately, doesn’t the Recovery Program require you to hit bottom before you can start the upward path?
With CalGov workers being such a large proportion of active voters, how can we ever hit bottom?
Amazing, when I run out of money, I just stop spending, I don’t go rob my neighbor.
CaliforniaRevolution.com
http://www.californiarevolution.com/
Until they close the borders, the school population will continue to grow.
Not to mention the fact that many California Republicans are RINOs. The state party sold us out this last time around. They pretended to be against the budget when they knew along they were going to vote for it. They just had to decide which three were going to take the slings and arrows. so they chose two termed out RINOs and a third they are now providing cover for.
The state Republican party apparatus deserves no support from the rank and file or conservatives in general.
"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
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