So my home state, the Socialist Republic of Kalifornia, has now decided to increase our taxes….once again, without decreasing spending. They finally pushed through a bill by bribing the hold out Republican with what I first thought was a good idea:
The state Senate approved a long-awaited budget early Thursday intended to wipe out a $42 billion deficit, possibly steering the state clear of a fiscal disaster.
Leaders secured the final vote needed from a moderate Republican in late-night negotiations by agreeing to his demands for election changes, government reform and removal of a gas tax increase, giving them the two-thirds needed to pass the package, 27-12.
He got them to get rid of another damn increase in our fuel tax, this time a 12 cent increase. Why did they cave? Because they just increased our taxes in other ways:
Leaders also agreed to Maldonado’s demand to eliminate the 12-cent additional gas tax, which was estimated to bring in $2.1 billion through June 2010. The money will be replaced with a 0.25 percent increase in the state income tax, federal stimulus dollars and more than $600 million in line-item vetoes.
Sigh….
He also got them to agree to put on the ballot a referendum approving open primaries. Which may bring in more moderate candidates for the the generals. He hopes this will lessen the polarizing politics we have in this state. We shall see. I recall that kind of strategy got us McCain for this last election.
Either way, we pay one of the highest tax rates in the country, and now its going up. We rank 48th in the country in regards to business tax climate…the only ones worst then us are New York and New Jersey.
I imagine we will be hitting that 50th spot soon.
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GOP sells out to the highest bidder. Just ask Spector, Snow and Collins for more.
Three leftist-run, high tax states with large populations of Hussein voters and illegal aliens, all broke. Obviously a coincidence, huh?
After 18 years in Kalifornia, I can honestly say the State never looked better than when in my rear view mirror….
Gotta do what ya’ gotta do……I did it myself.
Ghost @4
Reagan was once a democrat also, but then he wised up.
I really don’t understand why liberals think that tax increases will solve problems. You can’t tax what isn’t there. If there is no businesses to tax, then it’s pointless. Maybe Arnold should start thinking about taxing his liberal buddies like the google brothers and silicon valley.
Thomas, they don’t think it will solve the problem nor do they care. The goal is to obtain more power, money, and control over the “peasants”.
Curt,
SRK
I like it.
I prefer DPRK though…
Perhaps Democratic party leaders should be called by more appropriate pronouns befitting that which they have planned for the US. Which one do you like best?
Nomenklatura
The Politburo
Partkoms
Bol’shevik
Intelligentsia (I think this may be what they would prefer to be called, therefore I propose a slight change below that would be more correct.)
Unintelligentsia
Of course, California has a clear path back to solvency and employment and good times.
If the state would simply move to open up their offshore areas to oil and gas drilling, the income from tax revenues and the resulting employment would take the state a long long way toward where they need to be.
But, of course, they won’t do that. They will continue to wallow in the pit of self destruction and despair that they have created for themselves. They will continue to implement, and enforce, onerous tax and business policies which will simply drive people out.
California is the real life example of killing the goose which laid the golden egg.
You can only sponge off of, and suck the life blood out of, the producers in society for so long. A tipping point will be reached where the producers say “Uncle” and walk/run away to a more hospitable environment.
Watch what is happening in California, ladies and gentlemen. It’s the eighth largest economy in the world.
As goes Cali, so goes the country.
How many more nails before the coffin is full?
Not too many…
I miss some things about Kalifornia. I used to live an hour away from anything I might want to do. I could go to the beaches or the mountains or the big city or the desert or even Disneyland! The suburban sprawl I lived in had lots of diverse restaurants and plenty of close shopping for everything I needed. During the summer, the dryness made the heat bearable and it rarely got really cold in winter.
That ended five years ago when we moved to the middle of nowhere in rural Texas. Things aren’t quite as convenient here. The trappings of civilization are a little more distant and the weather is more humid and changes quickly. But there’s no state income tax, no traffic, no smog and real estate prices are about one third of those in comparable rural Kalifornia.
In Texas, the silly socialists seem to be concentrated in Austin, Dallas and Houston; and even there, they’re not a large majority. The politicians here are aware that they are held to account by a conservative base and it helps a bit.
It’s a different world here, in more ways than I have time to describe. You’d be welcome here and would fit in immediately. I think more and more people will come to that kind of conclusion for themselves as time passes.