Free Republic

In reverse order of probability: (5) oil severance tax, (4) Sales tax on services, (3) split property tax rolls (separate rates for homeowners than businesses), (2) cigarette tax, (1) Extension of Prop30.

Another blow was struck for competition, common sense and low taxes as Toyota Motor Corp. announced that they be moving their campus in Torrance, California to a suburb outside of Dallas, Texas. “Toyota Motor Corp. is moving substantial parts of its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., to suburban Dallas,” writes the Detroit News, “as the world’s largest automaker seeks savings from its U.S. sales unit, people familiar with the matter said.” Although no figures are yet available, anecdotal evidence suggests that people are fleeing California, not just companies. SFGate.com says that 66% of all state revenue now comes from personal...

... While the law stipulates that I must surrender this money, I refuse to acknowledge this as a tax at all. This is not a tax. This is an asset seizure plain and simple. The term “retroactive tax” is a despicable euphemism. It is no different than when Hugo Chavez used the benign-sounding “nationalize” to describe his seizure of private property in Venezuela. Now before I go any further, let me tell you what I am not. I am not a Tea Party member. I am not even a Republican. Twice I have voted for Barack Obama, and I was...

As the results of a new state income tax in California, a number of high-income earning individuals and small businesses are considering leaving the state. In November, California residents voted to pass Proposition 30 into law. The law increase state income tax rates for the highest income earners. With the new law in effect, the highest earners—those making more than $250,000 per year—now pay state income tax of 13.3 percent. While the increase in tax is expected to net California an additional $6 billion in revenue annually, the high-income earners affected by the change are not happy about it. …...

California Governor Jerry Brown hailed his signature tax-hike to fund education—known as Proposition 30—as a towering achievement that will ensure educational excellence in higher education and spare those trapped in poor and failing K-12 California public schools from budget cuts. But a new study by five UC Berkeley doctoral students titled “Swapping Our Future: How Taxpayers And Students Are Funding Risky UC Borrowing and Wall Street Profits” says that millions of dollars of the freshly raised revenues won’t go to California’s school children.

Millions of dollars in new tax revenue earmarked for the University of California system as part of the state’s recently passed Proposition 30 will instead be routed to major financial firms, because of bad bets made by a Wall Street-influenced UC Board of Regents. Proposition 30 was passed last week by California voters in part to stem the tide of perpetual tuition hikes and the rapid decline of public higher education in the state. But because of the Regents’ predilection for gambling with student tuition money, much of that new tax revenue will be routed away from tuition relief and...

On Tuesday voters in California went the wrong way on three propositions. Voters approved Proposition 30 "temporarily" increasing the state sales tax and income tax on individuals making over $250,000. They voted against Proposition 31 that would allow the governor to cut the budget in fiscal emergencies. They voted against Proposition 32 would prevent unions from making campaign donations via members' dues. Moreover, and worse yet, Democrats picked up two more votes in the state legislature giving them a supermajority, capable of passing any tax hikes they want. Those results are so awful I suggest you prepare for the demise...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Californians approved a measure Tuesday that raises taxes on the wealthy and hikes the state sales tax. It is expected to bring in $6 billion a year, on average, over five years. Proposition 30, which Governor Jerry Brown has lobbied heavily for, captured 54% of the vote. Its approval prevents massive budget cuts to the state's public schools and universities. Brown built the tax hike into his budget so its passage was critical. Among the hardest hit by the Great Recession, California has had to slash billions of dollars from its budget in recent years to...

FIELD POLL: Tax measure support drops below 50 percent SACRAMENTO – A new Field Poll shows that support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax-increase ballot measure has dipped below 50 percent for the first time this year, with the initiative’s fate hinging on supporters’ ability to win over undecided voters. Today’s Field Poll shows that 48 percent of voters support Prop. 30 and 38 percent oppose it. Fourteen percent of voters are undecided. In mid-September, 51 percent of voters backed Prop. 30 and 36 percent opposed it, with 13 percent undecided. The survey found a sharp decline in support for Prop....

Here are four reasons to be concerned about Proposition 30: Californians are taxed enough at present; Governor Jerry Brown has designed the tax-hike measure as an abhorrent form of political extortion; Much of the revenues from the tax hike would not go to schools, but to politicians, to spend according to their whims; and, lastly . . . Money per se is not the problem with the public schools.

A counterpart to the biblical adage that the poor will always be with us is the notion that the rich will always be one tax hike away from leaving us. That's the foundation stone, after all, of the argument against raising taxes on "job creators" and of bestowing preferential treatment on capital gains (largely collected by the rich) over wage income (the sustenance of us other poor slobs). And it's a linchpin of the campaign against Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to raise income taxes on income above $250,000, topping out at a 13.3% rate on income over $1...

Prop 30: Your Wallet or Your Kids. NO Either approve $36 billion in higher sales and income taxes or else Gov. Brown threatens to shoot the schools. Don't worry, the income taxes are only on the "very wealthy," but it turns out the "very wealthy" include many small businesses filing under sub-chapter S, meaning lower wages, higher prices and fewer jobs. California already has one of the highest overall tax burdens in the country and yet has just approved a budget to spend $8 billion dollars more than it's taking in. Moral of the story: it's the spending stupid. Prop...

Gov. Jerry Brown released an Internet ad the other day, asking voters to embrace his multibillion-dollar tax increase. But the word "tax" is nowhere to be found. The closest Brown or other speakers in the tightly scripted ad come to the T-word is "new revenues." Mostly, it touts Brown's efforts to cut state spending and declares – wrongly – that the state's credit rating has improved. "We've made progress, but we still have very serious budget problems in California," Brown says in the ad. "We simply have to take a stand against further budget cuts for schools or for our...

November 2012 Statewide Ballot Measures Proposition 30 Initiative Constitutional Amendment 1578. (12-0009) - Final Random Sample Update - 06/20/12 Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Qualified: 06/20/12 Proponent: Thomas A. Willis c/o Karen Getman (510) 346-6200 Increases personal income tax on annual earnings over $250,000 for seven years. Increases sales and use tax by ¼ cent for four years. Allocates temporary tax revenues 89 percent to K-12 schools and 11 percent to community colleges. Bars use of funds for administrative costs, but provides local school governing boards discretion to decide, in open meetings...