Posted on 01/03/2012 5:26:34 PM PST by Nachum
States: California's in trouble. Businesses are leaving along with intellectual and investment capital and skilled workers. But rather than face up to serious problems, legislators pass silly laws. One would think that given the serious nature of the state's problems, the legislature would focus on solutions at the exclusion of all else. Instead, lawmakers — what would we ever do without them? — found the time in 2011 to trespass even deeper into Californians' personal lives. Topping off Sacramento's monument to foolishness is a law requiring children younger than 8, except for those taller than 4 feet 9 inches,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
California remained the “Golden State” long after Prop. 13 passed and the state flourished for many years in 85/86 the ridiculous extremest radical environmentalist crap kicked in and the very lucrative and specialized oil industry jobs were immediately shut down.
That was Chapter 2 in the decline, Chapter One was not deporting the illegals.
I know, I was a resident. I left for the same reasons folks are leaving now.
Steve Jobs, Apple and Silicon Valley saved your butts for a bit.
Success always brings know it all Liberals from back East who invade like locusts and kill everything in sight.
End of Story.
Reagan and Prop 13 were the only 2 sane things that Ca has done in the past 40+ years. I’m sure theirs a few more, but I can’t think of them off hand.
Oh, it’s far too late for us Californians!
One only has to look at the results of the 2008 elections to see that most of the leftist radicals (like Brown) were voted into office with well over 10 percentage points (and lots of voter fraud) — they left the Republicans in the dust. There is no turning back at this point, and as Pat Buchanan says: Demographic is Destiny!
Anyone from another state driving around my formerly nice California city would be shocked at how many businesses are boarded up — and have been that way for several years.
I’d leave too if it weren’t for job constraints and elderly relatives who have no one else. We are being taxed out of existence here with calls from the statehouse for even higher taxes! Someone has to pay for all the illegals Section 8 housing, medical bills, EBT cards and education for their children.
What was that expression by Margaret Thatcher? Something about sooner or later the socialists run out of other people’s money. California is on the brink of bankruptcy.
What do you think is going to happen when the EBT cards run out?
Oh, I am not so sure of that. Now that there is no more tax base to finance socialist fantasies, things stand a chance of changing.
Brown is already cutting some things. Soon more things. Like Illinois, we have chased or are chasing every legitimate business out of the state. Property values are falling, and will fall even further. This is putting an even greater hurt on the tax base.
We have to hit bottom before the idiot socialists will have no choice but offer incentives for business to return. I give it one or two years.
Hey, I'm an optimist.
It’s looking like the Golden States No longer Golden.Lets just say their Government killed the goose that layed the Golden Egg.
Not that I’m happy about it because my own State,Connecticut is trying to follow California’s example.
Right now with Prop 13 we all get to have our cake and eat it to: more and more government programs with no fear of raising taxes.
So why are you putting the blame on prop 13 when more and more gov programs and spending is the real problem. By suggesting that prop 13 is a problem, you’re really saying that we should tax more to keep up with the obscene spending.
Thank God for Prop 13. Without it we’d all be taxed to death here. Certainly very few could own property. Taxes could easily be more than a person’s mortgage payment. The crooks who run California are the problem, not taxpayers prop 13 revolt.
Note to California politicians, public unions, and illegal aliens: The good ship Golden State (aka “Titanic II” has hit the iceberg of rising taxes, increased Draconian regulations, and out of control spending. Robbibg Peter to pay Paul, while exacting a huge service fee has just about killed the productive sector in CA.
The productive business and taxpayers are voting by abandoning ship, It isn’t a question of whether California can survive, but when it takes its final plunge into oblivion. The productive are in the lifeboats and racing from Titanic II. Meanwhile the illegals, union morons, a political whores are rearranging the deck chairs as the ship of state continues to sink.
Bye-bye, California. Last one out, turn out the lights and lock the door — or not, because it will have been stripped and sold by illegals.
We left, along with my husband’s business, 2+ years ago. Motor-voter did California in. When you have foreigners affecting politics, the USA (and the States) suffer. Don’t let the Obama Admin make Motor-voter the Law of the Land! Our Land will be lost forever!
I'm sure it is. The only ones I see keeping their illegal landscapers, are the very wealthy folk and those on government pensions. Most everyone else in CA gave them up when all collapsed. Funny watching those still able to hang onto their homes, now doing their own yard work. Not to mention plumbing, auto repair etc.
We also pulled a new company out of Cali. We moved it before one single dime of income was created. It could have provided many good jobs in ca but now it never will.
The new company is doing well and on target to create substantial incomes for many people.
“Every time a property sells it gets gets reassessed...at a higher rate of course.”
I had a friend who lived near Sacramento explain the problem with the property tax cap to me in simple terms: If you live in an area with capped taxes, the only way to increaserevenue beyond that is to sucker new buyers into the neighborhood. The “suckers”, rather than buy into an area where their taxes will be double that of the “established” folks, simply band together and set up a new town a few miles down the road (as there is no shortage of land in CA). This leaves the original neighborhood to shrivel on the vine, as the tax cap makes services unaffordable at the lower tax rate (at least at the level the “established” people want); as those people die off the town does, too. Twenty years later the cycle repeats at the “new town”, with people buying or building even further out from the original town.
BTW, this will be happening now in NJ since Gov. Christie capped our taxes; they can increase 2%, while teachers are still being given raises of 4% - hence the MASSIVE police layoffs (their union isn’t as strong). While I know it is not a long-term solution, the tax cap is the only way for many of us to continue to stay in our homes - we didn’t “overpay” for them, but have been RAPED with property tax increases. This hasn’t just driven people & businesses out of NJ; it has made our homes impossible to sell. That is why Christie would win re-election until the end of his life if he could - he is NJ’s only hope.
I agree; see # 31.
NJ has the same problems.
You're right. Actually no sane person on the planet would agree with you.
I would make the case that Prop 13 took away local control of schools and cities, and gave more control to Sacramento, since ultimately the State wound up offsetting the shortfalls due to Prop 13. I say, better to may more in local taxes and having more control over those funds, than having to pay more in State taxes, with less control over those revenues.
Prop 13 is a problem?
I disagree.
Ronald Reagan once said, “The problem is not that government doesn’t tax people enough, the problem is that government spends too much.”
A prison psychologist in California makes over $700,000.00 per year - money stolen from taxpayers under the threat of violence... and adds virtually nothing to real GDP.
The main problem in California is too many grossly overpaid “public servants”, who want even higher pay & benefits.
It’s amazing how this subject never gets addressed. Instead it’s all smoke & mirrors of not enough taxes.
Does anyone remember the city manager who was making over $800k per year? The head librarian makes well over $200k + full benefits, etc.
Every week there’s articles about new pay raises for city & state workers.
The average salary in the private sector is about $35k, the average government worker is about $100k!
So let’s tax the $35k guy so the $100k guy can get a raise.
Tool funny!
The main problem in California is too many grossly overpaid “public servants”, who want even higher pay & benefits.
It’s amazing how this subject never gets addressed. Instead it’s all smoke & mirrors of not enough taxes.
Does anyone remember the city manager who was making over $800k per year? The head librarian makes well over $200k + full benefits, etc.
Every week there’s articles about new pay raises for city & state workers.
The average salary in the private sector is about $35k, the average government worker is about $100k!
So let’s tax the $35k guy so the $100k guy can get a raise.
Tool funny!
It may seem counterintuitive, but I believe that if every vote was a mere majority vote, then the California voters would see to it that just over 1/2 of the legislators were Republican. Maybe not every term, but a sufficient number of terms so that really bad legislation could be repealed and our budget could stay in balance.
This year alone there are over 700 new laws being passed most of which are anathema to conservatives. We can sit back and say "Well at least they can't raise our taxes, too," but meanwhile California circles the drain.
With Prop 13, local control has gone out the window. Pretty much all monies collected at any level are pooled. There are local taxes that are now given to the state, and state monies that are doled out to cities. It is a complicated fustercluck of a system that is rife with waste, fraud, croneyism, and abuse.
If we wanted to allow seniors to stay in their homes we could have done that with a simple property tax exemption clause. If we want to keep business costs low we could do that by keeping our worker's comp, minimum wage, environmental, etc. laws in line with those of other states.
Before Prop 13, if a city wanted to keep the property tax low, they could. Is there any city in California that has property taxes lower than those defined by Prop 13? In Colorado they actually lowered the mill levy when assessed values went up in the 90's in order to keep property taxes from skyrocketing. The same thing could be done in California.
I was a big supporter of Prop 13 for a long time, but the special interests have undermined and worked their way around it just like they did with the proposition system. The result is a complicated Rube Goldberg mess that is difficult to manage, reform, or eliminate.
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