California's budget still sucking wind (Compton, Newport Beach: loans, public schools, universities)

[MotleyCrew]

He was just on the tube whining that the Federal gov is to blame for this deficit....so it could not be that CA is a sanctuary state, a high pension/pro union state,.....and owns 33% of all welfare families in the USA. That is staggaring to me. Giving comes with such a price and time to pay the bill folks.

[hoffdano]

I think it is also interesting that the current budget proposal anticipates the tax revenue associated with the Facebook IPO - over $1B.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I think it is also interesting that the current budget proposal anticipates the tax revenue associated with the Facebook IPO - over $1B.

...and the Legislature already has it spent, plus some.

[Dunbar42]

Don't tax increases put to a vote on the ballot rarely pass? It looks like Brown is taking the Obama approach and trying to sell a tax hike only on income earned over $250k. As far as austerity, I'm all for it. Quit whining about the schools and cut the pay and benefits of state employees if you care about public education.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by Dunbar42

Don't tax increases put to a vote on the ballot rarely pass? It looks like Brown is taking the Obama approach and trying to sell a tax hike only on income earned over $250k. As far as austerity, I'm all for it. Quit whining about the schools and cut the pay and benefits of state employees if you care about public education.

I think the "tax people that make more than me" approach usually works in California ( I remember a millionaire tax for mental health that passed a few years back).

The only problem is that Brown's tax plan also includes a sales tax increase. I would think most people would be opposed to a sales tax increase, but Jerry got elected again, so who knows.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

As usual? The only reason the news is so public is that Brown is desperately trying to get voters to approve tax increases.

Yes, as usual, since the fallout from the housing bubble California has frequently been one of the first to come out with bad news only to be followed by other states that have tried to hide it under the rug.

You're calling it "PR", but California is one of the few states that is being open about new taxes....something few states are going to be able to avoid in the future. Many others are hiding things under the rug and hoping they never have to talk about the T word...

Regardless, the real problem here is the federal flow of dollars. California is a donor state, yet its economic is in pain. So then, we have a situation where California is sending welfare to other states (largely conservative states) while its economy is doing poorly....and then we have to hear glib remarks about the failure of liberal policies.

But hey, its not too late to let Texas and the South form their own countries right?

[Dunbar42]

Originally Posted by user_id

So then, we have a situation where California is sending welfare to other states (largely conservative states) while its economy is doing poorly....and then we have to hear glib remarks about the failure of liberal policies.

Right, but that's a result of the progressive income tax. The biggest tax payers tend to cluster in just a dozen or so states. That means a disproportionate amount of income is sent to DC from a relatively small number of states. As someone else pointed out here, it seems odd for democrats to complain about this phenomenon as it's no different than other forms of income redistribution by the federal government. Can you imagine what democrats would say if someone in Newport Beach complained about their tax money being used to build a school in Compton?



http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/1397.html

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by ZhugeLiang

This is the crap that happens when people cling to an ideology to the point where it becomes self-defeating and completely irrational.

Great your politics have won out, congratulations. We're broke, our education system blows, we're going to be tax slaves for pensioners, and you're the champions in the race to the bottom! Too bad that you've dragged the rest of California down with you.

We're getting a taste of Eurosocialist failure and we've only been running the experiment for about a decade. Europe took nearly 50 years to get to this point. Nothing like discovering the harsh reality early in the journey.

[Winter_Sucks]

Budget cuts, tax increases, and reform. It's not hard to figure out, it's just not popular to do. This is really the problem with politics across the country, not just California.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Dunbar42

That means a disproportionate amount of income is sent to DC from a relatively small number of states. As someone else pointed out here, it seems odd for democrats to complain about this phenomenon as it's no different than other forms of income redistribution by the federal government.

The states with the strongest economies have the largest number of high income folks so what you're really going about is economic strength.

Regardless, moving federal dollars out of states with strong economies and using it to stimulate the economies in weaker economies is good policy. What isn't good policy is maintaining the same flow of funds when the donor state is having major problems. That would be like insisting a higher income individual continue to pay the same taxes even though his income has declined...

With that said, its absolutely annoying that the people that complain the most about welfare, liberals, etc are people that live in states that are receiving large amounts of welfare from the very people they are complaining about.