Californians aren’t under-taxed
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
It’s official now. Senate leader Don Perata has told The Associated Press that he is running the recall election against Sen. Jeff Denham, a Merced Republican who represents much of Madera County, so that the Legislature can raise taxes.
Perata is backing former Democratic Assemblyman Simon Salinas against Denham. Apparently Salinas has agreed to raise taxes.
The tax hike would be allegedly aimed at closing the state’s looming budget deficit, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says is approaching $20 billion, a shortfall caused largely by a slowdown in real estate transactions and the taxes generated by them, but also by over-budgeting last year, which Denham opposed.
Denham has another idea, one which he has pursued since he was elected. He believes the state should sell the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of surplus property it is sitting on, and from which it receives little, in his opinion.
Denham isn’t alone in this thinking. The governor’s Performance Review Commission also reached somewhat similar conclusions. But it probably will lead nowhere.
Here’s a fact: Californians are not under-taxed. California jobholders and the self-employed pay well above the average in taxes per person when compared to job holders and the self-employed in other states. Some claim we are the fourth-highest payers in that category.
On a total per capita taxation comparison, however, we are about average among other states, which means a lot of people in California are paying little or no taxes at all.
That is the Legislature’s fault. But in general, the Legislature won’t fix the problem. Instead, it raises taxes in such a way that the paychecks the wage-earners take home are smaller because deductions are larger.
The Legislature often has no historical perspective. At times, the state has run more efficiently. Why not learn something from that?
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BELOW — “California Dreaming” performed by a boy named Sungha
