Blue collars in California are once again being targeted by lawmakers with a multitude of new taxes on the energy industry that will trickle into their pocketbooks.
Our current slate of lawmakers are aware from the California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office reports that personal income tax liability is concentrated among its top earners. Shockingly, almost 70% of the general fund comes from less than 5% of the population. The Governor’s budget summary for 2019-2020 reflects this scary trend.
The State has 40 million residents and relies on less than three percent or just over one million of its wage earners for most of the revenue allocated to the general fund. It’s enlightening to know that there are more than one million millionaires in California in the “basket” to help with the funding.
For more dollars and diversity, our lawmakers definitely need to be more creative in procuring attaining a great share of tax revenues from blue collar to support all the government programs. These extra costs on blue collar residents will “ensure” that California continues to suffer the highest percentage of people in poverty, homeless and welfare crisis that’s so acute it shocks the world.
- California has the largest numbers Unsheltered People Experiencing Homelessness per the 2018 data from the S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- State by State Poverty rates, geographically adjusted, places California highest in the nation at 23.8%.
- California spends more than $100 billion going toward welfare, which is more than the next two of New York and Texas on the list combined according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
A few of the creative new tax actions by our lawmakers for 2019 and 2020 under serious consideration are:
- SB-246 Oil and Gas severance tax
- AB-40 Zero-emission vehicles: comprehensive strategy
- Property Tax Initiative on “Split Roll” to assess commercial and industrial properties at fair market value while leaving homeowners’ Proposition 13 protections in place
The 95% of the residents not contributing significantly to the General Fund, and most likely not able to afford an EV, will start picking up a higher percentage of the revenue directed to the General Fund and help subsidize grid infrastructure, charging technology, and the endless list of government programs that are now principally funded by the 5%.
The California Energy Island is a huge energy user requiring 60 million gallons of fuel manufactured daily in-state to meet the energy consumption demands of airlines, trucks and cars.
The extra costs imposed on the manufacturers are ultimately passed on to the consumers, a major reason that Californians already pay almost a dollar more for fuel than the rest of America, and more for the cost of electricity, that are both increasing with each new “tax “and additional regulation.
To manufacture those fuels out-of-state or out-of-the-country and ship them into California ports would be even more expensive to the consumer, and increase emissions to the world as no other location on earth has the same environmental controls than California.
Our lawmakers are getting votes by constantly attacking the energy industry, but the industry is not going anywhere. The industry’s just passing those additional costs onto the consumer, and wrongly absorbing the heat for raising the cost of fuel!
The unintended consequences of more taxes on energy is that the lifestyles of all 40 million residents of California that rely on the fuels and the products manufactured from those deep earth mineral/fuels, would result in blue collar folks contributing a greater portion to the General Fund than they now do. On the contrary, with no new taxes on the energy sector, the State can ensure that the top earning 5% continue to contribute 70% of the dollars to the General Fund.