Sacramento, Calif. â California lawmakers just got a Henry Paulson-like ultimatum from state officials: If they don't act, the state could be forced to suspend road, bridge, and other public-works projects as early as next week. Come March, California will be out of cash for even day-to-day operations. http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081210/ts_csm/abellyup Florida better get a move on before the trough is empty.
Nothing new here. Republican legislators have already floated a trial balloon of imposing a 9% sales tax on so-called "luxury" items such as: 1.) Sporting events 2.) Amusement parks 3.) Auto repair 4.) Veterinary services 5.) Appliance and Furniture repair As long as there is some sort of a budgetary spending cap.
The state of California is very enlightened, and generous to provide santuary to millions of illegal aliens and if that proves fiscally disasterous, then I as a Midwestern taxpayer am obligated to bail them out their ideals are my responsibility the only reason i would object, would be because i were a RACIST (so says the fascism of political correctness)
California is ungovernable and is not fiscally viable. Prop-13 prevents the government from raising property taxes more than 2% per year and many people are requesting and receiving new lower assessments. So they're going to hit us with sales tax increases. The problem is that everyone wants their own sales tax increase. The city of LA just added a point or two and the state added 1.5 points. Purchases in the city of LA will have almost 11% sales tax added on. Out_friggin_rageous. Millions of dollars of sales are being diverted from S.Cal business and are beginning to go to internet purchases. If you can find an internet business that does not have a storefront in California you cannot be charged California sales taxes. I'll bet that Cali will try to get that loophole closed. They're also adding all kinds of fees and additional taxes to utility bills, some of them under the guise of "promoting conservation". Californians are going to be raped via their water, electric and natural gas bills. California is in a massive lawsuit with the federal government over emission standards. Jerry Brown is suing the U.S. government and the Big-3 over it. Maybe instead of fighting the feds the state government could spend that money to keep cops and firefighters on the job and maybe keep the street-lights on.
I did the math and in order to cover the 11.2 billion dollar deficit, every man, woman and child has to pony up 300 dollars each. I would be ok with a 2% sales tax increase, but not if these ignorant people keep voting to spend money. (I'm talking about the CA voters!) They voted for a 9.95 billion dollar high speed rail (prop 1a). Interest payments on that will be about half a billion per year for years and years to come before the thing is even built and jackass voters were like..."Yeah, a high speed rail would be COOL! lets vote for it." and then they blame the politicians when CA cant afford to pay its police & firemen.
the politicians here don't have the ball sacks to do what they should: cut spending. they want to enact these "temporary" sales tax increases which then become permanent. when i first lived here the rate was 6.xx%. how does it go up by 25% over the years??? the total tax burden of california puts it 6th in the country (it varies year by year but it's always fairly high). you'd think with all this money, they'd have enough to run a state but apparently not. i'd like to know how florida gets by! http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/335.html
And they ain't about to let any damn budget crisis or bad economy get in the way of their agenda, by golly! Count on stuff like this at the national level once ObamaNation gets here. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/ap_on_re_us/california_greenhouse_gases
I hope California is not bailed out. It must be allowed to fail and fail hard. Let Sacramento get a lesson in economics. This is most incompetently run state in America. Sometimes I think a nice 10+ earthquake would do some good here. Bulldoze the rubble and start again.
California is a looney bin. Mexicans have the biggest and best lobby. They will succeed in making it just like Mexico. There were some guys I heard interviewed on a radio talk show that are going to put a measure on the ballot next year to tax everybody with 20 million or more net worth a one-time tax of 10 million or something like that... it seems to be the California dream to drive the wealth out, after that they will probably be hitting the Fed up for welfare for everybody..
And then there's the ridiculously high CalPers retirement system that pays, depending on their career field, almost 100% of the normal annual pay even after they retire. A friend of mine is a cop and is going to retire after 30 years at 90% of his annual pay! (3% x number of years = retirement pay for his city) He and his wife will be earning 6-figure incomes for life -- as retires. How can CA continue to afford that if the stock market and economy continue sideways (or downward) for many years?