Californians get a 10% tax increase today. But state leaders promise it's only a loan.
Effective today, the amount of state income taxes withheld from California workers' paychecks will increase 10 percent.
The increased withholding comes on top of a 0.25 percent state income tax increase and a reduction in the dependent credit, also enacted as part of the state budget.
Essentially, the accelerated withholding program does not generate additional tax revenue. Instead, it front-loads it, bringing cash in more quickly in an effort to keep the state treasury stocked with funds, which is where the "cash advance" tag comes in.
The
LA Times published an editorial today.
California and Texas are not perfect representatives of the alternative deals, but they come close. Overall, the Census Bureau's latest data show that state and local government expenditures for all purposes in 2005-06 were 46.8% higher in California than in Texas: $10,070 per person compared with $6,858.
Californians must be receiving outstanding service, right?
Today's public benefits fail that test, as urban scholar Joel Kotkin of NewGeography.com and Chapman University told the Los Angeles Times in March: "Twenty years ago, you could go to Texas, where they had very low taxes, and you would see the difference between there and California. Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to ours, and their universities are good. The bargain between California's government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class."
I guess that Californians remain content to
pay those 6-figure pensions.
Californians get a 10% tax increase today. But state leaders promise it's only a loan.
11 comments:
"...renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class."
What's the negotiation? There's no 'negotiation'. It's do it, or else. It is a diktat. An order. Obey.
Heck, they are not even asking for money. There is no WWII like 'Buy Bonds for Uncle Sam', or in this case California. Nope, it's just take it.
You know after the Revolution it was thought with the basic, simple government we had at the time, that a Congressman could not effectively represent more that 30,000 people. Today, 700,000. That is no representation, at all. We are, effectively, unrepresented.
You have the welfare class dependent upon government, you have the elderly dependent upon government, you have government workers and their families depended upon government, you have GM/Chrysler/Citibank,AIG, BOA, bond holders dependent upon...
And then there are us, the schmucks, fools, sheeple, serfs.
But, hey, the Federal Reserve will just keep printing, so other than savings, and the value of anything you thought was a savings, don't worry. Well, investment too. It's hard to get real returns that can beat a printing press.
CA has a long term problem...their population now accepts entitlement programs as normal and proper, and to view different views as corruptive--and not to be tolerated.
Their "life style/values" can only be supported by taking from those living elsewhere...think of it as an economic war which will be waged in DC to transfer (aka redistribute) wealth from conservatively run states to liberal/blue states/cities.
Aww, what are you bitchin' about Lou? The exodus and inevitable collapse will just make it easier to move back here and escape those miserable Houston summers.
How to survive?
Vital question for thousand of CA families...
It looks there is NO answer for now. Extremaly depressing.
Arnold Schwarzenegger needs to be frog-prepped.
Good point, Chickenlittle.
It is a shame the reporters never take it one step deeper and do a macro benchmark...at some level look at pp spending on major categories of government costs amongst blue and red states and then score the results...real eye opener I suspect...but we should be awed that even this was printed.
This is not so much a kick in the teeth as it is a public acknowledgement of the shit kicking we've been absorbing for many years. It's actually a small step in the right direction.
As for the state trying to front load our tax burden, jesus wept do they not understand people will just jack up their deductions?
Its just another budget game to keep from having to make difficult decisions. But the reporting on this makes it sound catastrophic. Californians are not having an extra 10% taken out of their paychecks. The rate is going from 6% to 6.6% it is a 10% increase in the withholding rate not the amount of the deduction. About 17$ per month on average.
$17 per month on average... wasn't that somewhere on the order of what the temporary and ballyhooed federal payroll tax cut was?
Anyway, I noticed on an HR/Accounting website recently a "heads up" to California HR directors letting them know that they should be ready for a flood of adjusted W-4's. Why? Because a lot of workers might realize that they'll be over-withholding for these next two months.
Personally, though, I'd say at $17/month, I doubt many would redo a W-4 because it's hard enough to get people to adjust them right anyway!
Kinda obnoxious for government to be nickel-and-diming people that way, but most of them are getting the government they chose.
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