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Why is California taxes so high anyways? I feel they add up with the federal taxes to as high as in Canada, except that you don't get almost free education, sub

Why is California taxes so high anyways? I feel they add up with the federal taxes to as high as in Canada, except that you don't get almost free education, subsidized child care, free health care, free meds, and year long parental leave.

seattle_spring 5y ago
They're so high because property tax is grossly unfair there. There are people with $10m homes paying taxes as if valued closer to $100k.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  It is funny, CA actually has very progressive taxes…except prop 13 creating this giant loophole for land wealth where the older landowners are grandfathered into a highly regressive property tax. https://itep.org/whopays-map/ https://itep.org/whopays-map/
nradov 5y ago
Depending on how you count, California has about the 10th highest total tax burden among US states. But in terms of educational achievement and government services we're certainly not getting our money worth. The state government is now largely controlled by public employee unions who treat it as a cash cow.
cmrdporcupine 5y ago
No free meds in Canada. Well, not for most people. And no dental care coverage either. Just doctor/hospital care. Education isn't almost free. Annual tuition is $7k-$8k CAD ($6.5kish USD) a year. And subsidized child care is... dicey. Depends on province, etc. and unlikely to find availability. As for parental leave, could you live on $595 CAD ($472 USD) a week? That's the maximum... Not ideal in the Toronto area where the average for a 1 bedroom apartment is around $2000 CAD a month. It certainly helps a lot when you have a working spouse, but it's not enough to raise a child on your own. It's not a worker's paradise up here. It's better than it could be though.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  I always wondered where these $2,000 a month renters look. You can get a house for amount.
  - the_only_law 5y ago
    For people living paycheck to paycheck, I assume they likely don't have the down payment for a house. Unless you're referring to renting a house I suppose.
  - cmrdporcupine 5y ago
    You can't get a house in Toronto area with a $2000 a month mortgage. Average home price is $1M and higher now, which is over $4000 a month in payments unless you have a very substantial downpayment.
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      Renting.. outside of the downtown core.
- didibus 5y ago
  Well, meds while in hospital are free, and otherwise they are much cheaper or offered for free to qualified individuals. So they're either cheap or free. I'd consider that almost free education haha, but also I'm from Quebec, so the average is 3k per year for tuition (also why can't other province follow suit here). In any case, it's far away from a 60k tuition you can get in the US. You won't really see anything above 16k per year in Canada even for med school at the best university. I'm also from Quebec, so for childcare you get 7$ per day, but yes it can be hard to find availability. Honestly, I'd be happy with unpaid parental leave even, but off course I'm an engineer, so I can afford it. I think a lot of parents can afford having one at home with 500$ a month and the other working. So it's still a pretty big perk. > It's not a worker's paradise up here. It's better than it could be though I think that's slightly off topic, California has way better jobs for engineers, that's why I'm no longer in Canada. But job availability and pay is kind of orthogonal to taxes (unless you'd tell me the tax money goes towards attracting higher paying jobs to the state). So the question remains, where the hell does the tax money go here? And why can't they offer as many services when the taxes are just as high, especially considering the state is way richer than any province in Canada, it seems they could afford to offer even more services than in Quebec for all that money.

seattle_spring 5y ago

They're so high because property tax is grossly unfair there. There are people with $10m homes paying taxes as if valued closer to $100k.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
It is funny, CA actually has very progressive taxes…except prop 13 creating this giant loophole for land wealth where the older landowners are grandfathered into a highly regressive property tax. https://itep.org/whopays-map/ https://itep.org/whopays-map/

nradov 5y ago

Depending on how you count, California has about the 10th highest total tax burden among US states. But in terms of educational achievement and government services we're certainly not getting our money worth. The state government is now largely controlled by public employee unions who treat it as a cash cow.

cmrdporcupine 5y ago

No free meds in Canada. Well, not for most people. And no dental care coverage either. Just doctor/hospital care. Education isn't almost free. Annual tuition is $7k-$8k CAD ($6.5kish USD) a year. And subsidized child care is... dicey. Depends on province, etc. and unlikely to find availability. As for parental leave, could you live on $595 CAD ($472 USD) a week? That's the maximum... Not ideal in the Toronto area where the average for a 1 bedroom apartment is around $2000 CAD a month. It certainly helps a lot when you have a working spouse, but it's not enough to raise a child on your own. It's not a worker's paradise up here. It's better than it could be though.

ipaddr 5y ago
I always wondered where these $2,000 a month renters look. You can get a house for amount.
- the_only_law 5y ago
  For people living paycheck to paycheck, I assume they likely don't have the down payment for a house. Unless you're referring to renting a house I suppose.
- cmrdporcupine 5y ago
  You can't get a house in Toronto area with a $2000 a month mortgage. Average home price is $1M and higher now, which is over $4000 a month in payments unless you have a very substantial downpayment.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    Renting.. outside of the downtown core.
didibus 5y ago
Well, meds while in hospital are free, and otherwise they are much cheaper or offered for free to qualified individuals. So they're either cheap or free. I'd consider that almost free education haha, but also I'm from Quebec, so the average is 3k per year for tuition (also why can't other province follow suit here). In any case, it's far away from a 60k tuition you can get in the US. You won't really see anything above 16k per year in Canada even for med school at the best university. I'm also from Quebec, so for childcare you get 7$ per day, but yes it can be hard to find availability. Honestly, I'd be happy with unpaid parental leave even, but off course I'm an engineer, so I can afford it. I think a lot of parents can afford having one at home with 500$ a month and the other working. So it's still a pretty big perk. > It's not a worker's paradise up here. It's better than it could be though I think that's slightly off topic, California has way better jobs for engineers, that's why I'm no longer in Canada. But job availability and pay is kind of orthogonal to taxes (unless you'd tell me the tax money goes towards attracting higher paying jobs to the state). So the question remains, where the hell does the tax money go here? And why can't they offer as many services when the taxes are just as high, especially considering the state is way richer than any province in Canada, it seems they could afford to offer even more services than in Quebec for all that money.