Tuesday, May 15, 2012

California - argument against raising taxes on the wealthy


Our leaders in Sacramento need to be taken out behind the barn and given a thorough "talking to". The dysfunction in Sacramento is pushing our schools to the point of failure. 120 people have themselves so tied up in knots that our state can't move forward with the hard choices that are needed to be made. I'd like to quote from the Wall Street Journal. 

Wall Street Journal/Review and Outlook/Opinion, Paul Gigot, editorial page Editor, 5/14/12.  Opinion:  "California Ugly", soaking the rich isn't working on the left coast.

"It looks like that Facebook IPO may not be enough to save California's fisco after all. Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has renounced his U.S. citizenship to move to Singapore, which has no capital gains tax. And now we learn the Golden State's budget deficit will come in at $16 billion, up from a merely awful $9.2 billion estimate in January. California Controller John Chiang reported last week that April tax collections were a gigantic 20.2%, or $2.44 billion, below 2012-13 budget projections. You have to admire Mr. Chiang's capacity for understatement as he noted that "revenues disappointed." Yes, and J.P. Morgan's whale trade was a $2 billion rounding error.

Among the biggest surprises is a 21.5% or nearly $2 billion decline in personal income tax payments from what Governor Jerry Brown had anticipated. This reinforces the point that when states rely too heavily on the top 1% of taxpayers to pay the bills, fiscal policy is a roller coaster ride."


Editorial page editor Paul Gigot on why soaking the rich isn't solving California's chronic deficit problems.  "California is suffering this tax drought even as most other states enjoy a revenue rebound. State tax collections were up nationally by 8.9% last year, according to the Census Bureau, and this year revenues are up by double digits in many states. The state comptroller reports that Texas is enjoying 10.9% growth in its sales taxes (it has no income tax), while California can't seem to keep up despite one of the highest tax rates in the land. This would seem to suggest that California should try cutting tax rates to keep more people and business in the state, but Sacramento is intent on raising them again. Governor Brown and the public-employee unions are sponsoring a ballot initiative in November to raise the state sales tax by a quarter point to 7.5% and to raise the top marginal income-tax rate to 13.3% from 10.3%. This will make the state even more reliant on the fickle revenue streams provided by the rich.

Meanwhile, an analysis by Joseph Vranich, who studies migration of businesses from one state to another, finds that since 2009 the flight of businesses out of California "has increased fivefold due to high taxes and regulatory costs." This month Chief Executive magazine reports that its annual survey of CEOs ranked California dead last among the 50 states in business climate. Texas was number one. The silver lining for Jerry Brown, if not for the California fisc, is that if you're already ranked 50th you can't get any lower—though he seems willing to try."

Submitted with comments by Jim Wagner

Posted by Kathy Meeh

2 comments:

Kathy Meeh said...

Companies and people have been moving-out of California forever-- still, California is about the 8th largest world economy (slipped from 5th at one time). Population in the Bay Area is generally not shrinking, except in Pacifica (slightly).

Raising taxes 2.3% on the top income earners to support our state's economy is not going to cripple anyone. The top 10% now own 90% of national wealth, let them pay their indexed fair share.

Paul Gigot (Republican) is a rational long-time unapologetic defender of large business and the wealthy. During the past 30 years the wealthy have generally grown more wealthy, whereas the rest of us "not so much". 30 years ago with high taxes, the wealthy owned 60% of the national wealth-- now they own 90%. Are "the rest of us" economically better off now? And, does lobbied money interest improve our democracy, citizen intelligence, and government process? Not based upon that data, 30% loss of middle-class and poor wealth is significant.

Business migration out of California probably includes issues of cheap labor, regulation avoidance, lower cost housing, as well as tax avoidance. In the news a few days ago, Michigan business interests were in Silicon Valley holding a job fair to poach former Michigan workers who migrated to California. Their job enticement pitch included: employment with lower job pay, but much lower housing cost.

Anonymous said...

KSFO 560 AM Whistle Blower Wednesdays had a ear full of IRS not enforcing illegal alien laws.

Illegal Aliens getting huge tax refunds. One alien recived $26,000 refund check. Bob Segal , did a three month investigation into how this is happening. The irs issues the aliens a tax id number. Tax preparers are part of the scheme and most likely take a cut. 2 million checks went to illegals in the amount of over a billion dollars. The man that rec'd the $26,000 refund listed 24 dependents. After interviewing him he said none of those dependents ever lived at his address. A Tax Preparer also was on the show saying that the IRS is a political agency and whatever agenda the president leads on is how the irs works. For example, it was said that all of these illegals were told that they will receive help in getting these huge refund check for their vote and are right away made to fill out a voter registration card. Over a billion in refund checks went to illegal aliens that do not have a social security number, but instead are issued a tax id number. Shocking news to say the least. The investigator also said the IRS is not returning his phone calls.

California is a one party state, run by the Democratic Party. To blame a "rich republican" for its problems is weak and no one even believes kathy's talking points/propaganda. There are no republicans left in this state to make any difference what so ever. Nancy Pelosi, a democrat, is one of the richest in congress. I could go on naming all the multi billionaires in commiewood, but I am now boring myself, if you don't already know this by now I can't help you.