More New Tax Stupidity: Will the Last Productive Person to Leave California Please Turn Out the Lights?

Red State ^ | 06/21/2026 | Ward Clark

[SeekAndFind]

California seems determined to prove out that old saying of President Reagan's, about government: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

California has become a veritable tax-a-palooza, and they have already driven many of the productive residents out of the state—those being the people who work, who invest, who start and run businesses, and who create jobs. From the impeccably coiffed Governor Gavin Newsom, he of the questionable finances, on down, nobody in California's government seems to understand the notion of incentives, or how they work.

Now, California is about to press the TURBO button on stupid, with a horrifying round of new taxation.

California lawmakers and the governor this year are preparing to implement major tax hikes in a matter of weeks, representing one of the largest tax increases in the state within the last decade.

One of the tax increases is an updated tax on health plans. The new tax is expected to result in $100 per year rate increases for individuals on private health insurance.

Another, brand new tax would tax the purchase of digital software as a service for anyone who buys it. Apps subject to the new tax include Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, Work Day and Slack for example. The tax rate starts at 7.25%.

There are a few people who understand the havoc this will wreak on California's economy.

While the state expects it could result in about $1 billion a year more in revenue for the state, David Kline, the vice president of research and communication for Cal Tax, said it could be five to six times that amount.

“The tax, layering or pyramid, depending on how you want to describe it, that's the biggest problem," Kline said. "California has an affordability crisis. And this tax is going to just add a tax extra cost at every step of the process of every product. You know, if you're manufacturing, you know, widgets, the famous economic item that doesn't exist, it's going to cost every step of the way. And ultimately the person at the end is holding the bag,”

Not necessarily; the person on the end, the person who will get hit by these taxes, may join the accelerating exodus of the productive from California.

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Look, businesses are bailing out of California en masse, and have been for some time. Oh, California's population may be dropping, but California is getting more of what they incentivize: More homeless people, more open-air drug markets, more illegal aliens, more of the permanent dependency class. Oh, some of the wealthy coastal elites in their gated communities remain, those that are wealthy enough to be shielded from the effects of the socialist stupidity that they voted for. And, thanks to California's election shenanigans, the far-left may continue to run California for some time to come. 

With these new taxes, Sacramento seems determined to drive the last remaining productive people, the last few businesses, large and small, out of the state, and into the inviting, low-tax arms of places like Texas and Florida. Next thing you know, they'll be taxing sunshine, rainwater and oxygen.

Still, the once-Golden State isn't without some hope that this idiocy will be forestalled:

"There is some time left in the legislative session for things to be changed. And historically, the legislature has kept working on the budget right up to the end of the session," Kline said. "So, we're hopeful that we could convince them to undo some of the damage that these taxes would do."

I wouldn't hold my breath.

Now, there is still some hope. There are still people in California with conservative views. Some of them are friends and colleagues of mine. They are fighting the good fight, trying to bring their home state back to some semblance of sanity. I wish them every scrap of luck, but when Sacramento engages in lunacy like this, it sure does look like they still have a long uphill climb to redeem their state.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; exodus; healthcare; taxes

[mep3]

The lights will go out, all on their own, when no productive people are left.

[KC Burke]

Buddy of mine who lives off of investments left five years ago. House on a coastal golf course sits empty and unutilzed so it can not have its taxes changed. He uses it for a few days once or twice a year.

[Mr. Lucky]

Too late.

[BenLurkin]

Impeccably coiffed must be French for greasy haired.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

When the last few people leave Kalifornia, the lights will have been off/gone for quite a while.

[Texas resident]

I have family born in the ‘30s and the ‘40s who will never leave California. Their kids, my generation grew up there in the 1950’s to 1960’s are also staying because that is their home. Their kids born from 1990 on, are leaving. They have left for N. Carolina, Montana and Idaho.

[Mark]

But no need to shut off the lights. Electricity is too expensive.

[Bonemaker]

“Will the Last Productive Person to Leave California Please Turn Out the Lights?”

There won’t be be any electricity to turn off.