CA: The `hard-headed' case for tax hikes (Angelides)

SJ Mercury News ^ | 2/23/03 | Phil Yost

[NormsRevenge]

PHIL Angelides, the state treasurer, is full of ideas and is not shy about expressing them. So it was no surprise when he sent out a letter recently, followed by some get-attention appearances, to advocate tax increases to save schools from budget cuts.

[Lael]

Dump the Schools (And the Bureaucrats!!!)

[Sofa King]

"`To the extent that tax increases are needed -- and it is totally unrealistic to pretend that spending cuts alone can solve the problem -- they should be broad-based and should reflect the need to protect the incentives to engage in economic activity.'"

The old problem of spending; once you spend x amount of money, you can never stand to spend any less.

[NormsRevenge]

Socialism is an addictive disorder. There is no cure until all the money is gone, then the withdrawals are frightful.

[Paulus Invictus]

My response to all politicians at every level has been met with anger and insults from the pols and the press. Hey, all I said was that they could solve all the budget problems by immmediately cutting by 30% all salaries of burocrats and by eliminating several existing programs (except police and medical services). Wow!, did that get them incensed! Persona non grata was the nicest thing they said about me, even on the local talk radio programs. I quickly learned that the sacred cows ( such as school and welfare budgets) were untouchable.

I am also now categorized as an "untouchable" and my appearances at city council meetings are greeted with groans and smirks from the mayor and council idiots. To show that they were listening (NOT!) to me, they soon gave themselves big raises and voted to allow huge housing developments that are to be built on property coincidentally owned by council members. The sheeple sleep!

[farmer18th]

Raising taxes will kill jobs and hurt working families.

Shhhhh! Keep it quiet. That's only for working families.

(Ever see a state park ranger actually at work?)

[CPOSharky]

Hey, Kalifornia bureaucrats...

Collect ALL of EVERYONE's wages and then give them back about $15,000.00 a year for living expenses. That should be enough to live on since there would be no other taxes and all their needs would be provided by governmant programs.

Of course the bureaucrats would require a little more because they are impotent - oops, important.

[MissBaby]

The schools can certainly find ways to scale back expenses. To disagree is to say there is no waste, no non-essential positions that can be eliminated.

Sadly, when school officials make budget adjustments, their raises stay in tact and only cut where it will hurt the students and inconvenience the parents.

[Dog Gone]

Economists have political and social values that influence their public policy prescriptions.

However, 14 liberal ones signed a letter, and that's all that gets media attention.