More taxes for Californians

[jussi]

In these hard economic times what do you do with one of the most heavily taxed States in the union already? Why raise their taxes even more of course. Are we allowed to recall all the politicians at once?

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1615398.html

"• Increasing the state's sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar.

• Increasing gasoline taxes by 12 cents per gallon.

• Raising the state's vehicle license fee from the current 0.65 percent of a vehicle's value to 1.15 percent, with 1 percent going to the general fund and local law enforcement getting 0.15 percent.

• Increasing the personal income tax across the board, either by assessing a surcharge on tax liability or increasing the tax rate."

[TB Roye]

Yea and on top of that we get to pay for the mother of 14 kids. Won't go any farther as I will go into a political rant of the greatest length. I was born here and If I could sell my house I would leave.

Tom

[jackellis]

I may deal rather harshly with the next person who waves an initiative signature page under my nose, unless it involves a constitutional amendment to ban voter initiatives. that's one I'd vote for in a heartbeat.

[pelligrini]

From the story: "If voters approve the spending limit, the three revenue-raising components would be in effect for five years. If they reject the measure, the revenue would die after two years."

Nice, if they vote no they still get it for two years...

[ragswl4]

I may deal rather harshly with the next person who waves an initiative signature page under my nose, unless it involves a constitutional amendment to ban voter initiatives. that's one I'd vote for in a heartbeat.

Me too, except the courts would rule it unconstitutional as with most things passed here that make logical sense. Not only are we up a creek without a paddle, we don't have a boat either. Also those taxes haven't been raised yet either, not over till the calorie challenged lady sings.

[TB Roye]

Yea and with the drought we are supposedly having we wouldn't have the creek and If we did they would sell the water to another state to balance the budget.

Tom

[herb fellows]

Here in good ol' New York, the asessed value of my house has gone down by $142,000 over the last 18 months, and my property taxes have gone up to 16% more than when they were at the higher valuation.

Not to minimize your pain, Californians, but there's plenty to go around!

[dbhost]

You know, I am thinking of that mid 90s Country and Western song...


"God Blessed Texas"...

FWIW, I was born in the SF Bay area... My parents had the good sense to get out quick... Too expensive to live in California...

Our voters were smart enough to put caps in place, and only allow the state legislature to meet every other year...

My property taxes dove this last year due to Hurricane Ike. It seems that until my fence and roof get replaced (still fighting with the insurance company over that) my value is kind of down...

[430752]

Don't cry to me. At least you get sunshine and open space. Out here in Jersey, we have the highest property taxes in the nation, not to mention highest insurance rates too. My property taxes this year on a about a half acre is $13,850. True, our sales tax is a bit less than yours (7% vs. 7.25%), but as a MSN article says:
The state in which residents pay the most in combined state, local and federal taxes, per capita, is Connecticut (38.3%), followed by New York (37.1%), New Jersey (35.6%) .
But maybe most importantly, to add insult to injury, out here we have to live with uppity Californians who are going to de facto dictate new national car mileage rules and up the costs of our cars while reducing selection! Geez, can't you Californians keep it in your own pants?

[TB Roye]

We just wanted to share the wealth and besides we had a surplus of upities. We still have more than enough we will send more of the excess if needed.

Tom

[RyFitz13]

The state in which residents pay the most in combined state, local and federal taxes, per capita, is Connecticut (38.3%), followed by New York (37.1%), New Jersey (35.6%) .

And as a Nutmegger, I can attest that our taxes, overall, are nuts. We fortunately have a sane Governor who's pointed out that we're headed for a large budget shortfall and proposed a new budget whose first rule was "Do not raise taxes." Lots and lots of spending cuts, some painful and/or unpleasant, in her proposal. Of course, our legislature does not share most of her ideas, so chances are we're gonna see some increases here too just the same.

[Kristofor]

In Minnesota we used to regularly be in the top 3 list for highest local taxes, but we've made some improvements (and other states have become higher taxed) in the last decade. Of course back then we had a multi-billion dollar surplus, now we have a multi-billion dollar deficit, though honestly most of that is the economy as the actual state revenue has not declined or been below inflation over that period...

Several years ago we dropped the state income tax rates for all brackets by a bit. We now have a multi-billion dollar deficit but that's apparently due to lots of folks being out of work for part of the year or with lower hours worked leading them to have fewer income dollars to tax, and those are at a lower rate since their total income is lower too.

When we moved our sales tax from %6 to %6.5 there were only 3 other states at that rate or higher, now there are 19 states at or above %6

We also changed our license tab system. It went from costing several hundred dollars per year to a high amount when you buy a new car, but <$200 the next year, and <$100/yr after that. Multiple reasons, but in addtion to simply being less expensive it helps remove a barrier from operating a newer more efficient car. Sure it also makes the SUV cheaper but you save the same amount of gasoline consuption and CO2 emmissions taking an SUV from 10mpg to 11.5 MPG (15% improvement) as taking a car from 30MPG to 50 MPG (66% improvement). Now decide where to spend your R&D dollars and which folks to incentivize...

Our ciggie taxes are at about $1.50/pack today (this seems to go up every year or so, but I'm not a smoker so I don't know the exact schedule of when the next ones are). Again, a decade ago there were only ~5 states at that level, now there are close to 20...

Overall, I think the trending information is more helpful than the raw numbers. Is a state's tax burden improving or falling down relative to other states, and in actual dollars... Of course, that's only the cost side of the picture you need to look in to the benefit side as well to figure out how much value you're seeing...

[ragswl4]

Don't cry to me. At least you get sunshine and open space. Out here in Jersey, we have the highest property taxes in the nation, not to mention highest insurance rates too. My property taxes this year on a about a half acre is $13,850. True, our sales tax is a bit less than yours (7% vs. 7.25%), but as a MSN article says:
The state in which residents pay the most in combined state, local and federal taxes, per capita, is Connecticut (38.3%), followed by New York (37.1%), New Jersey (35.6%) .
But maybe most importantly, to add insult to injury, out here we have to live with uppity Californians who are going to de facto dictate new national car mileage rules and up the costs of our cars while reducing selection! Geez, can't you Californians keep it in your own pants?

You made me feel a little better and we shall soon feel your pain. Its hard for a Missouri boy like me to take all the crap that gets put on the ballots here and people vote for. We have so many bond issues that pass and these folks don't realize that it costs tax dollars to pay the interest on those bonds. Raise taxes, they all scream no, no, no. Call it a bond issue to save the kangaroo rat and it passes with ease. Its insane. Hope your situation improves but I doubt it.

PS: We are not all uppities.

[Ed62]

When we moved our sales tax from %6 to %6.5 there were only 3 other states at that rate or higher, now there are 19 states at or above %6

I remember when there was no state sales tax in Indiana. Now we're up to 7%.

Ed

[cabinetman]

Florida is 6%.
.