The California legislature is about to drive California straight off the Santa Monica cliffs into the Pacific Ocean. They appear to be driving blind, in the fog, with their eyes shut, on icy roads, without seat belts in a vehicle without airbags…. or doors, or brakes, for that matter.
They are essentially refusing to make any significant cuts of any kind in state spending (a couple of cosmetic reductions, but nothing that matters, or will actually make a difference… remember they call it a “cut” when all they’ve done is increase it by less than they’d planned). And they are making a HUGE tax increase, across the board, in a state with very high taxes already. They’re reducing the child deduction credit, hugely, directly increasing the tax bill of families. They’re doubling the annual car tax. They’re adding 12 cents per gallon gas tax, to an already high gas tax, compared to other states, and it ain’t for roads, it’s to fund bizarro offices and bureaucrats who do nothing but sit around dreaming up new regulations to harass people and business. And, of course, to reward all the special interest groups and entitlement leeches who put them in office. They’re raising the SALES TAX by 2 cents per dollar (some accounts say “only” 1 cent, but the 2 cent report persists), and California’s sales tax is already 8% in most places. And there will be a 2.5% “surcharge” on income tax. Holy Moley.
I am not rich by any stretch, just pretty middle class, and a quick tally leads me to believe that between all these things, I’ll spend about $2000 more in just California taxes per year in the new regime…. and one of my cars is a 2005 Prius (with about 120K miles on it now)!
What do all these taxes have in common? They are very regressive taxes, meaning they hit lower income people the hardest, percentage wise, and families with children get hit the worst. Whatever happened to the Democrats being the “party of the people”?
As with the federal government, all they know how to do is spend money they don’t have. They have apparently no sense of how economics actually works. They have no concept of what damage they’re doing to the business environment in California. Businesses are leaving in droves, and other states are chortling at their windfall of new businesses.
I am in mind boggle.
And just to complete the picture, they’re about to approve ridiculous environmental regulations, and “endangered species” regulations, that will make it possible for the eco-pagans to sue just about everyone for just about everything. THAT will really help the economic recovery, won’t it?
I’m crawling into a hole and pulling the lid in after me. Then I’m getting out the shovel and digging deeper.
The California Republican party is just about the most pitiful entity since, I dunno, the Roman Viola Ensemble featuring Nero the violinist as guest performer. They are simply gutless.
I didn’t know when we elected him that Arnold was planning to TERMINATE California as a viable state.
I think my ten year old would do a better job of running the state. She actually counts her money to see if she can afford things.
But Arnold (RINO that he is) and the Democrats are throwing us to the lions… who are very hungry, even though they were just fed yesterday.
February 18th, 2009 12:07 pm
Yeah! They are not playing games, but the people that are trying to stop it are having difficulty holding up. There have been some movements to keep this from happening, this is a quote form the LA Times, “Around 11 p.m., a group of GOP senators, unhappy with the higher taxes that Senate leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto agreed to as part of a deal with the governor and Democrats, voted to replace him in a private caucus meeting in Cogdill’s office.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget18-2009feb18,0,2637442.story
Here is a website that will allow you to calculate how much the new tax will impact you.
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/1627728.html
Here is the website of the “Shock Jocks” that are at the forefront of attempting to make CA residents aware of this tax increase:
http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/johnandkenshow/index.html
The biggest enemy we have is ignorance and apathy.
JM