Saturday, September 15, 2012

California Tax Civil war.



The Mercury News today has an article " Schools spit by dueling taxes" ( Sept, 2012 ) . This article is detailing  how much our tax rates will go up under Propositions 30 & 38 . Not as much as our states Public school system crying afoul ** .   $ Well that 1.6 %  tax increase for me as a single filer who makes close to 50,000 a year is a bit meager to the "big" picture on taxation.In California the state with with the title "king of tax" . Sometimes I wish we had our own Boston Tea Party to throw the "governor's tea in the state harbor" . With revenues  always going bonk , the state always is looking for a hand out from us little guys Both initiatives place a heavy burden on ALL Californians. We already have some of the highest taxes in the nation. This, coupled with the severe fiscal mismanagement in Sacramento, frame a situation that we can not afford. We need to see some reforms in the way of fiscal responsibility before Sacramento can be trusted with MORE money. Going back to Propositions 30 & 38 both of them will likely confuse the voter,  face two conflicting tax measures on the November ballot. The first is backed by Gov. Jerry Brown, whose attempt to close the budget gap by raising personal income taxes through the state legislature failed late last year. Instead, Brown made a plea directly to the people with a petition drive. Prop 30, an initiative constitutional amendment also known as the Schools & Local Public Safety Protection Act, is the result of that campaign. The other tax measure is Prop 38, which has been funded almost exclusively by its proponent, wealthy tax attorney  # Molly Munger. Both ballot measures put the focus on protecting education funding, but they go about it in different ways.The likelihood of open warfare between Gov. Jerry Brown and civil rights attorney Molly Munger, who have rival tax increase measures on the November ballot, has increased with the formation by Brown's supporters of a committee to oppose Munger.While polls indicate that Brown's measure has bare majority support, Proposition 38 falls below 50 percent, largely because it would hike income taxes on a wider segment of socety. And that appears to be the focus of the new anti-Munger committee.Munger has criticized Brown's measure for purporting to bolster school spending while giving little or no new money to education, but has not indicated yet whether she'll finance an opposition campaign to Proposition 30. Munger, whose personal wealth stems in large part from her father'sbusiness partnership with billionaire Warren Buffett, has clashed with Governor Brown's camp for months over whether multiple tax hikes on the same ballot would lead voters to summarily reject all of them.  The 63-year old Pasadena attorney told reporters this past winter that she wasn't going to "just do what the king says" in setting aside her $10 billion a year income tax increase for K-12 schools.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/07/jerry-brown-allies-form-committee-to-oppose-molly-munger-measure.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/07/jerry-brown-allies-form-committee-to-oppose-molly-munger-measure.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/07/jerry-brown-allies-form-committee-to-oppose-molly-munger-measure.html#storylink=cpy

Seems here . The Rich Taxing the Poor?

Trickle, trickle, trickle. Unfortunately our leaders in Sacramento continue to take away from the wrong well. They should be serious about reforming the unsustainable pensions liabilities we have in California. As we saw a few days ago the Democratic Senate leader cut of the mic at a budget debate so we "the general public" would not be exposed to the sausage making. Now they want to continue to keep us in the dark as they shift the burden of information to the municipal level. We should not allow them to treat us like kids. The strongest voice we have is at the ballot box; let's remind them that we are grown-ups as they ask us for more of our money to waste in their propositions in Nov.


NOTES & COMMENTS:

Current California (not federal) income tax for a couple with no children, 5 taxable income levels:

$20,000 - ~$250 total state income taxes (~1.25% of income)
$50,000 - ~$1,180 total state income taxes (~2.4% of income)
$100,000 - ~$4,700 total state income taxes (~4.7% of income)
$200,000 - ~14,000 total state income taxes (~7% of income)
$1,000,000 - ~$88,400 total state income taxes (~8.8% of income)

There is a similar breakdown (about 2.5-3x as much per category) for federal income taxes.

So why are we hitting those already giving the most, while arguing they aren't paying their fair share?

If we need more money, why not charge everyone the same percentage of their income - another $200 for the couple earning $20K, another $1K for the $100K couple. 

**Schools Crying afoul.........Like most states, California has seen a dramatic cut in education funding, most speakers at the event pointed out. “Today many schools don’t have paint or clay or a sculpture teacher. I’m tired of knowing and thinking about the budget crisis. I want to do something,” said Nathan, who became interested in educational funding after her daughter brought home an orange clay bunny she had made at school. It was orange, Nathan said, because her teacher only had enough funds for three paint color choices.

 #Brown and Munger both want to raise taxes by tens of billions of dollars.  That means the cost of products and services will go up while employment will go down.  They mean to harm the “rich”.  Instead it will be poor kids hurt the worst.    Molly Munger is taking on big interests and our very own Governor (Jerry Brown) here in California. She is spending millions of dollars of her own personal money to put a tax code change on the California Ballout and Jerry Brown wants her to Back Off. But Molly has been a prosecutor, a woman who became a partner of 2 male dominated law firms and an advocate for children's rights & education always. She and Connie Rice were awarded the Martin Luther King Human Dignity Award for their excellence.

No comments:

Post a Comment