Beneath The Surface

WSJ: The Tax Me More State

It’s less than one-week til Election Day, so I felt it would be important to start posting pertinent thoughts / articles. Below are some quick facts about Proposition 25 in California, which would reduce approval of budgets and taxes to a mere simple majority. If you live in California & want to preserve any of the money you earn, it would be advised to vote against Proposition 25.

• The Tax Foundation announced this week that California has the second worst business tax climate of the 50 states, with only New York more hostile to employers.
• Proposition 24 would raise $1.3 billion of new taxes on businesses
• Proposition 25 would allow the state legislature to pass budgets and tax increases with a simple majority vote, instead of the current mandated two-thirds supermajority.
• Although annual budget squabbles may be messy, but they draw much-needed public attention to what the spending interests would prefer to keep secret in Sacramento.
• Proposition 24 is opposed by just about every iconic employer left in the state—from Disney to Hewlett-Packard to Intel—because it would take away any remaining tax incentives for investing in the state. Now although the WSJ - and myself included, would prefer no tax loopholes contingent on lower and flatter rates, I think we’ll have to wait for pigs to fly in CA until that happens
• Guess who’s the main sponsor of Prop 24 and 25?? California teachers union.