4 ms·

California's minority-rule budget rules and ridiculous ballot initiative process have made crafting a reasonable budget impossible. Combine that with the slow f

by 100k 17y ago

California's minority-rule budget rules and ridiculous ballot initiative process have made crafting a reasonable budget impossible. Combine that with the slow fuse of the Prop 13 tax time bomb and you've got a disaster on your hands, and there's not much the legislature can do about it. California needs a new constitution.

lionhearted 17y ago
> ... and there's not much the legislature can do about it. Spend less. California has the second highest income tax rate, highest effective overall tax rates, highest sales tax rate, highest tax as a percent of gross income, highest corporate tax rate, highest incorporation fees, highest minimum corporate taxes, highest tax yield per citizen, and highest tax revenues in all of the United States. California gets more money per person in California than any other state, and more total money than any other state. In plain English: California has gets more money per citizen and more money total than other state in the USA. Prop 13 (property taxes can't be set above 1%, and aren't reassessed until a home is resold) has kept a lot of middle class and blue collar people in their homes. I'm in California, and my friend's parents are retired. Their modest house tripled or quadrupled in value over the last 15 years. If their property taxes had tripled or quadrupled, they wouldn't have been able to afford their house. Taxes aren't too low here by any stretch of imagination. It doesn't matter how much money you have if you spend more than that amount of money. That's California's problem.
- 100k 17y ago
  The people of California figured out how to cut their taxes and increase spending at the same time using ballot initiatives. The Legislature has extremely limited authority to close the budget gap because most of the spending is already set, and the Republican rump won't allow taxes to be raised. California's taxes as a percentage of income are really not that bad. It's #10 as of 2006: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/06stlrev.html http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/06stlrev.html http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/texas-is-not-the-only-red-state/ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/texas-is-not-the... You gotta pay for services. If Californians want to have taxes like Arkansas's, they'll have to put up with services like Arkansas's. Looks like we get to find out!
anamax 17y ago
> California's minority-rule budget rules and ridiculous ballot initiative process have made crafting a reasonable budget impossible. Oh really? On what planet would the majority Dems want to spend less?
- 100k 17y ago
  On my planet Democrats believe in financing government programs responsibly, instead of borrowing money for them like California has done. If the Legislature didn't have to deal with the no-new-taxes Republican rump or the utterly ridiculous ballot initiative-funded programs they would have a lot more leeway to fix the budget without slashing services.

by 100k 17y ago

lionhearted 17y ago

> ... and there's not much the legislature can do about it. Spend less. California has the second highest income tax rate, highest effective overall tax rates, highest sales tax rate, highest tax as a percent of gross income, highest corporate tax rate, highest incorporation fees, highest minimum corporate taxes, highest tax yield per citizen, and highest tax revenues in all of the United States. California gets more money per person in California than any other state, and more total money than any other state. In plain English: California has gets more money per citizen and more money total than other state in the USA. Prop 13 (property taxes can't be set above 1%, and aren't reassessed until a home is resold) has kept a lot of middle class and blue collar people in their homes. I'm in California, and my friend's parents are retired. Their modest house tripled or quadrupled in value over the last 15 years. If their property taxes had tripled or quadrupled, they wouldn't have been able to afford their house. Taxes aren't too low here by any stretch of imagination. It doesn't matter how much money you have if you spend more than that amount of money. That's California's problem.

100k 17y ago
The people of California figured out how to cut their taxes and increase spending at the same time using ballot initiatives. The Legislature has extremely limited authority to close the budget gap because most of the spending is already set, and the Republican rump won't allow taxes to be raised. California's taxes as a percentage of income are really not that bad. It's #10 as of 2006: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/06stlrev.html http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/06stlrev.html http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/texas-is-not-the-only-red-state/ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/texas-is-not-the... You gotta pay for services. If Californians want to have taxes like Arkansas's, they'll have to put up with services like Arkansas's. Looks like we get to find out!

anamax 17y ago

> California's minority-rule budget rules and ridiculous ballot initiative process have made crafting a reasonable budget impossible. Oh really? On what planet would the majority Dems want to spend less?

100k 17y ago
On my planet Democrats believe in financing government programs responsibly, instead of borrowing money for them like California has done. If the Legislature didn't have to deal with the no-new-taxes Republican rump or the utterly ridiculous ballot initiative-funded programs they would have a lot more leeway to fix the budget without slashing services.