Barely a month has passed since voters established a mandate opposing tax increases enacted by the Democratic State Legislature. The message was clear: we are tired of bank bailouts, GM bailouts, Chrysler bailouts and now a California bailout.
Not known for listening to the people, my very liberal colleagues in Sacramento are dead set on more tax increases.
Never mind that Californians pay some of the heftiest taxes in the nation. Our top-bracket earners have the second highest income tax rate in the country. Our middle income earners are also near the top of the list, and our gas taxes are the third highest in the nation. Californians are taxed enough already, and they will not accept any further tax increases.
Never mind that in 2008 Californians lost 95,000 private sector jobs, but California governments created 35,000 new government jobs.
Never mind the clear fact that tax increases don’t work.
Since the day the new state sales tax took effect, sales tax revenue has fallen by 44%.
Before that increase it was down 15%.Every time they raise taxes revenues decline.
Tax increases punish business and kill jobs. Less business and jobs means less tax revenues to support society’s most vulnerable. The more we tax and regulate our state’s business community, the more those who depend on state spending will suffer.
If we truly want to save our state and help those in need, it is imperative that we get government off the backs of the business leaders and entrepreneurs who can turn our economy around. Let’s cut the restrictive regulations that are choking businesses to death. Let’s cut the California EPA, a duplicative agency that costs us more than $2 billion annually. Let’s shift the cost of illegal immigration from the state to the federal government, and deport the thousands of non violent illegal immigrants residing in our state prisons at a cost of $49,000 a year per inmate. Illegal immigration alone is costing California taxpayers 11 billion dollars a year.
We must reform welfare. California has 12% percent of the nation’s population and 30% of the nation’s welfare cost. California’s lax welfare system is a magnet to illegal immigrants and welfare recipients from other states, driving our costs through the ceiling.
Redirect state power and funding back towards local government. Give local governments a greater say in the way funds are spent and eliminate non funded mandatory programs.
These are proposals that I, and the voters I represent, can stand behind. I guarantee you that I, and they, will stand against any proposals to burden the people of California with further tax increases.