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You realize the reason California in particular has a budget surplus is because of federal stimulus in addition to their outrageously high tax policies. That as

You realize the reason California in particular has a budget surplus is because of federal stimulus in addition to their outrageously high tax policies. That aside, why give money straight into people's pocket who will go out and spend it (foolishly) and thus increase inflation? How about, invest in the states infrastructure, address homelessness, work on crime, invest in education, work on wildfires. If after all that, there is still a surplus, give it back in the form of tax cuts. Don't just give everybody free money, most of those people pay little to no tax at all. If you don't pay taxes (or pay very little), you shouldn't get tax surplus money back.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> You realize the reason California in particular has a budget surplus is because of federal stimulus in addition to their outrageously high tax policies. California neither increased taxes nor got favoritism in federal stimulus, so that's not why it is doing outstandingly well in fiscal terms. It just manages it's economy better and so has GDP growth that consistently outstrips the national average (usually, it also gets hit harder in the brief GDP drops, but that wasn't the case with COVID—perhaps because California’s GDP is more reliant on remote-compatible work.) See, e.g. https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-trends-analysis/gross_domestic_product/tools/0/60000/ https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-tr... It did cut spending during the COVID downturn, which might have affected surplus numbers, but wouldn't have any impact on revenue overshooting the Gann Limit. > That aside, why give money straight into people's pocket who will go out and spend it (foolishly) and thus increase inflation? Because the very slight effect of the redistribution on expected overall inflation is much less than the expected effect it has in mitigating the impact of inflation on lower-to-high-middle income earners, especially lower income.

dragonwriter 4y ago

> You realize the reason California in particular has a budget surplus is because of federal stimulus in addition to their outrageously high tax policies. California neither increased taxes nor got favoritism in federal stimulus, so that's not why it is doing outstandingly well in fiscal terms. It just manages it's economy better and so has GDP growth that consistently outstrips the national average (usually, it also gets hit harder in the brief GDP drops, but that wasn't the case with COVID—perhaps because California’s GDP is more reliant on remote-compatible work.) See, e.g. https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-trends-analysis/gross_domestic_product/tools/0/60000/ https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-tr... It did cut spending during the COVID downturn, which might have affected surplus numbers, but wouldn't have any impact on revenue overshooting the Gann Limit. > That aside, why give money straight into people's pocket who will go out and spend it (foolishly) and thus increase inflation? Because the very slight effect of the redistribution on expected overall inflation is much less than the expected effect it has in mitigating the impact of inflation on lower-to-high-middle income earners, especially lower income.