This sumobitch IS lucky he wasn't fragged in Nam.. He won't be so lucky in NoVember
Enough IS Enough Already.. CaliPornia ... Wake the Hell UP!!!!
SEMPER FI
Norm
Posted on 04/16/2002 8:09:18 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
It wasn't difficult to read between the lines when Gov. Gray Davis pledged in his State of the State Address last January not to "advocate" for a tax increase. The governor's crafty election-year rhetoric provided the perfect escape: he wouldn't advocate for a tax hike, but he wouldn't veto one either.
Taking their cues from the governor like nervous freshmen in a high school theater production, Davis' fellow Democrats in the Legislature stepped in to do the one thing they're really good at: finding creative, new ways to soak taxpayers.
Not only were they creative, they were amazingly thorough.
Since the governor's address, Assembly and Senate Democrats have introduced 22 tax-raising bills. Some will hit California families hard; others targeting products like soda and snack foods may be easier to swallow. But their cumulative effect will be devastating to the state's taxpayers and its economy.
For example, SB 1520 by state Senator Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, slaps a 21-cents-per-gallon tax on soft drinks - roughly five cents per can. Another Ortiz bill, SB 1890, would raise the tax on cigarettes by 70 cents per pack. Since soda and cigarettes can cause health problems, argues Ortiz, we should tax the products into oblivion - make them so expensive that people give up their bad habits. But that's not the point.
What Ortiz and other Democrats seemingly don't understand is that taxes aren't instruments of social change. They're a means of providing citizens with basic services - things they can't do themselves, like build roads, keep the streets safe and deliver water to cities and farms. It's clear that in recent years Davis and Democratic leaders in Sacramento have expanded government far beyond its appropriate role.
Today, California's personal income tax - nearly 10 cents on every dollar earned - is at its highest level in decades. Last year, desperate to close a gaping hole in the state budget, Davis authorized a $1.2 billion increase in the state's sales tax - costing California families roughly $120 per year. This year, Democrats want to triple the state's tax on automobiles.
Meanwhile, the governor wants you to believe he's a hapless victim - that he bears no responsibility for the deplorable state of California's finances. He wants you to believe that all of these problems began post-Sept. 11 - that his lack of leadership and fiscal restraint had nothing to do with it.
While you listen to his empty rhetoric, remember: this is the governor who turned a multibillion-dollar surplus into a $17.5 billion deficit in three short years. This is the governor who panicked during the height of the energy crisis and signed $40 billion in overpriced, long-term power contracts. This is the governor who promised you he was a fiscal conservative, "tight with your dollars."
This summer, should Davis sign a budget that includes a bevy of tax increases, bear in mind: he didn't want to do it (or so he'll say). Don't be fooled. Since Davis assumed office three years ago, state spending has increased 37 percent - more than five times the growth in population.
Davis and legislative Democrats knew they were on a path of fiscal destruction and ignored all the warning signs. And now their only option is to come begging for more money.
Good for LaSuer for bringing it up again. Davis has skated free on this for far too long.
These rats, who tax and rape the taxpayers increased the sales tax by 1/4 of a percent. So basically everything we buy and use in Kali land except for food and RX drugs had a tax increase.
Did anyone read about this Stealth Sales Tax Increase in the LA Slimes, the Bees, The Gayrhonicle or anyother fishwrap? Did any Kaliland tv phoney news channel address this increase?
Most people are not aware that we had a stealth sales tax increase.
SIMON THE SANE ONE!
Since Davis assumed office three years ago, state spending has increased 37 percent - more than five times the growth in population.
There is NO excuse for this BS. A 37% increase in spending and what do we have to show for it?
Davis needs to be held accountable and needs to go!
Our county sales tax went from 7.5% to 7.75% on 1 January, 2002. The increase of .25% was for the state, and it was a complete stealth increase. Most people still don't even realize that there was an increase. I carry around a receipt dated 31 December 2001 to show the old rate and a receipt dated 2 January 2002 to show the new rate.
Our property taxes have limits that can be applied each year due to prop 13. The newer home buyers get clobbered. However, as I told my son and DIL who moved into a new home last year, they are the primary reasons for the increases. They are in a new development with new roads, sewers, water mains, increased fire and police protection.
Our state income taxes are a good size hammer. Then the rats are constantly coming up with new fees or investments as they call new taxes.
Democrats don't beg for more money, they just take it. In my book, that's called stealing.
Fortunately, we still live in a Democratic Republic. Let's vote these guys out of office and elect people accountable to the citizens of our great state.
Go Simon!
7.25% CA state sales tax, plus up to 1% county sales tax, plus up to 0.5% city sales tax.
Including the county tax, these are the sales tax rates along the Southern California coast:
Santa Barbara 7.75%
Ventura...... 7.25%
Los Angeles.. 8.25% *
Orange....... 7.75%
San Diego.... 7.75%
* In the city of Avalon on Catalina Island, the sales tax is the highest in CA: 8.75%.
1 gallon of liquid = 128 ounces
1 can of Coca-Cola = 12 ounces
($0.21)*12/128 = $0.0197 = 2 cents per can
Ortiz: "I think you guys can afford 2 cents a can"
I think this SDUT author needs to learn math; our public schools don't do a good enough job.
It seems to me, that the solid emissions from a car are equally as harmfull as those from tobacco.
Thus, if a gallon of gas results in the same particulate emissions as, say, a pack of cigarettes, then they should be taxed at the same rate, for the children.
Why don't you guys sponsor a ballot amendment to tie the tax on gas to the tax on cigarettes? Whatever one must pay on a pack of cigarettes, one must also pay per gallon of gas.
The referendum would surely pass - after all, polution is polution.
Isn't it?
(/sarcasm off)
Honestly, the CA economy would implode in 15 minutes.
The state then legislates that the extra revenue will go into a special fund and that future legislators will allocate the funds to social programs.
Often the justification for the new tax is that it will deter harmful behavior and that the money will help defray costs associated with the victims. This has never worked, and often the money is spent on the general fund (especially when there's a deficit, which was caused by overspending). Each new tax, however innocent in appearance, eventually increases overall costs and is simply an overall tax on all of us.
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