LeBron James turned down the Los Angeles Clippers and a few other teams and joined high priced free agents Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to play basketball in Miami. It’s reported all may have to cut back their salaries a bit so all three players can join up with the Miami Heat under the salary cap.

But they will probably make it up by not paying income taxes. LeBron could save perhaps $10-11 million by practicing his basketball skills in Miami instead of Los Angeles.

I don’t have the exact figures but check out this article, which suggests that James would keep over $12 million in his pocket under a $96 million deal by playing for Miami instead of the New York Knicks, where the state and city income tax is soon to hit 12.85%.

Who says the rich don’t consider tax rates? Not Florida residents Tiger Woods, the tennis playing Williams sisters or their new neighbors on the basketball court.

Well, as CalTax’s David Kline points out, at least James and company will leave some small change with the Franchise Tax Board when they play their games in California. Let’s hope a California team faces the Heat in the finals to help California draw down the deficit.

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The Field Poll showed Proposition 25 requiring a majority vote to pass the budget with a healthy lead of 65% to 20%. But, the poll was taken before opponents (and I am one of them) revealed in a press conference yesterday that the measure could also allow taxes to be passed by a majority vote if an appropriations bill related to the budget contained a tax increase.

When the word gets out the poll numbers will change.

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Jerry Brown held a press conference at Cal State LA with many Latino elected officials. His goal was to send a message that the Latino community was behind Brown after the Field Poll indicated that a third of Latinos are supporting Whitman.

But, with all those elected officials surrounding him, the message came across loud and clear behind Brown are politicians.

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Speaking of Brown … the other one … former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown joined Governor Schwarzenegger at a roundtable discussion on pension reform at the capitol yesterday.

Brown’s outspokenness on this issue will carry a lot of weight. He said he was once part of the problem…he doesn’t come to this issue with "clean hands," he said, but Brown is now filling the role of statesman in trying to fix California.

And, the issue of pension reform got a publicity boost when it was revealed yesterday that convicted former Orange County sheriff Mike Corona pulled down $215,000 in retirement payments last year.