🚀 go-pugleaf

"Bob Fry" <bobfry@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:3aaicu5b.fsf@mailinator.com...
> >>>>> "GO" == George Orwell <nobody@mixmaster.it> writes:
>
>     GO> Standard-Issue Financial Pundits (SIFPs) like Paul Krugman (
>     GO> State of Paralysis) are claiming the state's problems all stem
>     GO> from miserly California voters refusing to pay higher
>     GO> taxes. Uh, Paul, do you pay $10,000 in property taxes for a
>     GO> property you bought in 1992? I do, and I don't think that's a
>     GO> low tax.
>
> I know what's wrong with right-wing-nuts, they can't think
> straight. If in 2009 you're paying $10/year property tax that I assume
> falls under Prop 13 law, that means you paid about $715K for it back
> in 1992. Since then your taxes have increased a miserly 2% a year, far
> less than inflation or the market value.

Runaway taxes on property values were the reason that "Prop 13" was passed
in the 1970's.  California again has runaway taxes, and another correction
is due.

> Businesses do even better, since they can employ a legal scam to never
> have property change ownership and thus enjoy a max 2% increase in
> property taxes forever.

Businesses should have a different tax rate than residential properties.
However, currently, they don't.

>     GO> In case Paul hasn't visited the Golden State recently, allow
>     GO> me the honor of introducing a funny little concept called fact
>     GO> to his pro-tax rant. We pay 9.5% sales tax (9.75% if you voted
>     GO> for various transit projects like BART) which is among the
>     GO> highest in the nation.
>
> Yep, sales tax rates have increased since Prop 13 and are high...to
> make up for the low property taxes.

NO.  It's to make up for overspending on illegal aliens, who annually
consume $10B (per some commonly-accepted estimates) more in services than
taxes they pay.

>     GO> If you make a decent wage (I don't, but many do) then the
>     GO> state income tax is about 10% as well. That rate is also among
>     GO> the highest in the nation.
>
> The highest income tax bracket was eliminated in 1999 during the
> dot-com boom...never reinstated.

Granted that 12% has not returned.  However, with the 1% mental-health
surcharge tax, we do approach the 11% rate (10.55% for 2009).

> GAS removed the Vehicle License Fee, and whacked several billion
> dollars a year from the budget.

That's what the people wanted.  The problem isn't the tax, but the base
that it's imposed on.  For those who have vehicles older than 15 years, the
tax base doesn't reflect blue-book value (but is often higher).  Poor
people often have the older vehicles.

> The PPIC published a summary of California taxes
> (http://tinyurl.com/p8dox6). Guess what, California taxes have been
> pretty much at the national average since Prop 13 (late 1970s).
>
>     GO> What we have here is not just cognitive dissonance but
>     GO> pathological disassociation from reality: California is a very
>     GO> high-tax state, with among the highest rates in the nation in
>     GO> virtually every category of taxation.
>
> No, California is an average-tax state.  What we have is the Big Lie:
> tell a lie often enough, and the people believe. Before Prop 13,
> California taxes were higher than the national average.  For 30 years
> they've been average, and they're probably below average now.

California is NOT average.  It is among the top 5 for the highest taxes in
the nation in every category for the past two decades.  Have you read any
of the analysis reports written by the BoE or FTB on bills in the
legislature that propose modification of taxes?  I have, and this point is
a repeating theme.