New Committee Forms to Detail Devastating Impacts of Higher Property Taxes
Property taxes may be back on the table because of the state budget deficit. But a group has formed to educate the public and opinion leaders on the negative effects of increasing property taxes. Along with Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, I am a co-chairman of the group, Californians Against Higher Property Taxes.
Our mission is to make people aware of the adverse effects of property tax increases, including “split roll” property taxes that might be levied against business and non-homeowner property. I have written previously about this subject on Fox and Hounds Daily.
The new coalition consists of many individual small businesses as well as notable associations including the California Restaurant Association, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Orange County Business Council, National Federation of Independent Business and many others.
State could make money if it stopped taxing itself
For a great example of runaway bureaucracy at work, check out this article in today’s Orange County Register, which outlines a keen observation by Board of Equalization Member and F&H Blogger Michelle Steel on how the state is wasting millions of dollars by charging itself sales tax.
Dude, Where Are All Our Cars??
The estimate from the moving company seemed outrageous, $2542, to move my wife’s compact Mazda from the DC suburbs to our new apartment in Los Angeles.
I decided to see if I could do better.
In the process, I got a glimpse of California’s economic meltdown.
First I tried calling other major moving companies, places that had shipped cars for my friends. The competition immediately produced gains — a series of estimates between $1,400 and $1,600 — for the identical service. But on the phone, a kindly mover noted my itinerary — “going to California, eh?” — and suggested I might do well by submitting my particulars to a web site used by companies in the business of transporting autos.
I did. And immediately, I found myself to be a hot commodity, at the center of a bidding war between auto transport companies. They emailed twice a day. They called the house. With each email and call, the prices dropped further and further.
A Tale of Two Summers, Philadelphia 1776 and Sacramento 2008
Thomas Jefferson kept a weather diary. In it he noted the unseasonably cool temperatures for a summer’s day in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. But inside Independence Hall, the debate was anything but cool.
There were heated exchanges between the delegates of the Second Continental Congress as they debated whether or not to declare independence from Great Britain, severing forever the political ties to the mother country and taking a giant leap of faith into the unknown.
In the end, after months of arguing the merits of the issue and after much deliberation, the vote was taken and late in the evening the die was cast as the thirteen colonies became the United States of America. A nation had been born.
Here we go again…
Tuesday, July 1st, California will enter another fiscal year without having approved its budget for next year-again. It has gotten to the point that no one really expects it anymore, but we all moan and complain when it does not happen. The only years we come close are years when there is so much money, everyone’s thirst can be slaked from the fountain of money California’s powerful economy is capable of generating.
And little happens, at least for the first 30 to 90 days because the consequences are delayed by the timing of the billing and payment processes of the state accounting system. No big deal, right? But it IS A BIG DEAL! It shows just how dysfunctional our legislative processes have become.
For voters and workers in the state, it is almost insulting to say, “Go pay your mortgage, balance your checkbook and pay off your credit card bills on $45,000 a year, but don’t get mad at us for not being able to balance a $100 billion budget.” Californians are rightfully incensed.
The real problem at the heart of the budget process is not declining revenues, tax-and-spend liberals, greedy unions, obstructionist conservatives, or cheapskate taxpayers –it is the absence of leadership at the helm of the state. Between the governor and Democrat and Republican leaders, no one is willing to step forward, navigate a wise course and carry the message to the voters.