Posted on 05/08/2011 7:24:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
Unemployment is rising, the federal government is broke, and so are many of the states. Now more than ever America needs its various governments to exercise restraint, and to scale-back on spending.
And in the midst of this environment a stunning proposal has emerged in the nearly insolvent state of California: a third income tax.
The proposal is actually worse than a mere “additional” income tax – and I’ll explain this in a moment. First let’s look at the “other two” income taxes.
For the record, if you’re an American and you work and you earn personal income, your U.S. federal government imposes a tax on that income (most of us are well acquainted with this). And workers in forty-three of our fifty states also have their personal income taxed even further by their state government (the states of Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming do not impose a state income tax on their residents).
But now California, with an average statewide unemployment rate of over 12% (in some regions the rate is over 20%) and a budget deficit of somewhere between $10 and $15 billion, is considering the imposition of a third income tax. The additional income tax rate would vary, according to which region of the state one lives in, and would be imposed directly by school districts and county governments.
Many of California’s public school districts (there are over 1000 of them) are themselves broke, just like the state government. And because of a California law that was brought about by passage of a ballot initiative back in 1978 (it was famously known as “Proposition 13”), California school districts cannot simply do what most public school districts in America do, and continually raise property taxes higher and higher.
So in the absence of additional state tax dollars, and without the option of raising local property taxes, California school districts are searching for additional revenue streams to feed their never-ending spending addictions. In response, the California legislature is contemplating a new law that would literally grant local school districts broad new authorities to tax personal income – a third income tax for California residents – according to the needs of the individual school districts themselves.
Along with the ability to impose a third income tax on residents’ income, this newly proposed power would also grant school districts the authority to impose additional sales taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, oil drilling (believe it or not there is some of this still going on in California), “sugary beverages,” and “medicinal marijuana.” Teachers unions in California are elated with the idea of “all the additional tax revenue” that school districts would theoretically have to spend on unionized teacher contracts, and Governor Jerry Brown, who is indebted to government employee unions, would theoretically stand to gain politically from the idea.
But while Jerry Brown and his government employee union friends are seeing dollar signs, California business owners – already saddled with undue taxes, regulations, healthcare and worker’s compensation insurance requirements – are seeing chaos. In what has been described as “a confusing patchwork of tax rates for both businesses and individuals,” business advocacy groups are reacting to the legislation with horror, realizing the disparity it could create among businesses operated on opposite sides of a school district boundary.
Given that each of California’s 1000-plus school districts would have the authority to set their own rates on the additional income and sales taxes, both businesses and individuals would be faced with the chaos and inequality of paying different income and sales tax rates depending on what public school district they found themselves in. As Gina Rodriquez, vice president of the California Taxpayers Association noted, this would pit “school district against school district.”
In addition to the chaos and confusion that the school district taxes would create, there is the disturbing fact that some people – indeed several people in the California legislature – actually think it is a good idea to levy a third income tax on a citizenry that is already living with double-digit unemployment. This is perhaps the greatest injustice entailed in California’s new scheme.
The very fact that California’s legislators would propose such an idea underscores the perverse, incestuous relationship between government employee unions, and the Democrat Party. Nobody can argue from the standpoint of sound economics that a third income tax will do anything but harm the overall California economy, but that seemingly doesn’t matter to Governor Brown and his fellow Democrats.
As long as Democrat politicians can continue to re-distribute increasing amounts of wealth into the hands of unionized government employees, the unionized government employees will continue to do the grassroots political work to keep Democrat politicians in office. The government employees gratify the politicians, and the politicians gratify the government employees – and the person who works and creates wealth in the private sector pays for it all.
Noble statesmen and women across the country have recently begun to say “no” to this kind of destructive public policy. But the perversion rages on – for now – in California.
WHenwe are spending upwards of $13,000 per pupil per year in the public schools, there should be no discussion about additional taxation to fund schools, there needs to be serious education reform starting with the Department of Education. I am not even going to reference school performance and indoctrination....don’t need to because it speaks for itself...
Brilliant idea!
In the middle of a great recession/depression, raise taxes to ensure all business leaves the state.
In 2012 STOP THE INSANITY!
Isn't freedom grand?
This is exactly why my mother and father sold their farm in California and moved to Nevada ten years ago. They got tired of this nonsense...
47% of the people in Detroit and New Orleans cannot read or write...
Why continue to waste my money on such nonsense?
Could this third tax be the final straw for the idiots who vote for every school bond that comes down the pike?
I don’t think I can afford to live there anymore if this happens... it’ll be time to short sell the house.
California is insane if it tolerates this proposal. But then, California is insane ...
Over 50% of California’s state budget already goes to education. Like my tag line says, it is not a money problem it is a spending problem.
Socialist live in another world where there is no limit to that amount of money they can spend. Of course that world really does not exist except in their minds.
There is a limit to how much people are willing to pay in taxes. Bad things happen when states exceed that limit.
Of course the main stream media will be the cheerleaders for this, as you know it is for “the children”, or it is for “public safety”.
People are not buying that argument anymore. Fraud and lies may get another layer of taxes imposed but I can almost guarantee you that no additional money will be raised.
People will find away around paying more even if it means leaving the state. Sooner or later if California does not change its ways there will be more takers then there are producers and the financial house of cards will collapse.
$13,000 per pupil per year, and what are the results? The spending is at the high end in the inner city schools, which are little more than day care centers. There is still the overwhelming doctrine in the educrat culture that children in the inner cities are to be written off - which is in itself evidence of liberal racism. The University of Minnestoopid school of education had issued a doctrinal statement that any student who believes that pupils in inner city schools can achieve if motivation will not graduate from U of M.
The very idea that the same minds that created the problem are capable of a solution is of itself an insanity.
If it’s true that California spends $13,000 a year for every student, where is the money being spent? Show the people.
With all the people being layed off across the country, how many teachers have been layed off? How many have had their pay cut? How many have had their benefits cut off? It’s time they feel the pinch like everyone else. Check you schools and see how many employees there are vs students. How many illegals are in the schools? How many free food is handed out in the schools? It’s all out of control. By the way, how much lottery money goes to the schools?
The big question is, again, where is the money being spent? Show the people.
That is the Obama Base.
The Dems believe that the ideal world would be a Euro-socialist state, with high taxes and lots of bennies for everyone.
They are trying to condition people to expect lots of services from the gov’t and hope that once people are so used those services that they can raise enough taxes to cover them. The Swedish tax rates are probably what they are shooting for.
This is the stealth BO plan. He is trying to get this implemented before the economy tanks again. But time is running out, and he has to run the table on this game or else he could lose everything. If the bond market crashes and the cost of borrowing goes way up then this plan will fail.
California: State economic failure ensured. =.=
“revenue streams” and “sugary beverages”
You know, it would be one thing if the schools were turning out top drawer students, but that just isn’t the case. More money just means more of what we’ve already got - a veritable money pit. The system is far beyond reform or repair and people need to realize that. The system is broken and confiscating wealth is not the answer. This is the end game or final stage where they start to eat each other. Get your kids out of government schools, stop the madness. It’s over, folks, get used to it.
It wont be long before California tries to pass a law, that would allow the state government to disallow someone to move their business out of state.
TN does tax interest income and dividend income, I do believe. In addition to those living in a “city” they get double taxation with both city & county taxes and sales taxes are high too. Still a beautiful state, we have property there but haven’t built yet do to the economy and not wanting to be stuck with two house payments.
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