Munger Measure Would Upend State Finances
Chaos. That’s the overlooked and underreported consequence of the “Our Children, Our Future” measure, also known as the Munger initiative. Sponsored by philanthropist Molly Munger, the initiative would increase income taxes by more than $10 billion a year. It adds surcharges onto every tax bracket except the very lowest, and creates new high-income brackets, where […]
Prop 26 Repeal Takes Shape
Everybody talks about tax reform, but don’t forget about one of the few recent successes: voter approval of Proposition 26 in November of 2010. So it’s odd that for all the chatter about various and competing tax measures on next November’s ballot, little notice is made of the nascent effort to repeal this important reform. […]
Legislature Killed Two New Energy Taxes – And they Go Up Anyway
The California Legislature rejected two tax increases in 2011. Nevertheless, Californians will find their taxes increased by more than $1.1 billion in 2012-13. That’s right; the California Legislature does not have the last word on whether to raise certain taxes. It turns out that is the job of some powerful but obscure state boards. For […]
Figuring your “Fair Share” of Taxes
Populist and anti-corporate rhetoric have captured the political and media narratives recently, with everyone from President Obama to Occupy<insert your town> bemoaning growing income inequality and corporate compensation. No matter how the economy fares in 2012, Californians will be on the receiving end of tax-the-rich demands from now until the November election. Three ballot measures […]
Heading for Tax Congestion Next November?
Nearly one hundred proposed ballot initiatives have been filed with the Attorney General so far this year. This is not an unusual number, nor is it unusual that so many far-reaching and apparently well-funded measures have been proposed in the past 30 days. The close of the calendar year prior to an election year is […]
Income Inequality is Falling
One of the key narratives of the Occupy Wall Street movements, not to mention the emerging “class war” undertone in political campaigns, is that income inequality is rising. But how true is that narrative, and does it represent an inexorable fact of life in modern America? The LA Times recently shared uncritically a study from […]
Solyndra Subsidy Wasn’t a Tax Break — It’s a Spending Program
If you had any doubt whether the state subsidy for Solyndra was a tax break or a spending program, your question is answered. As I discussed earlier this month , Solyndra was the recipient of up to $34 million in California sales “tax breaks,” granted by an obscure office under the State Treasurer, to encourage […]
Solyndra could bring sunshine to California’s “green” economic policy
"Solyndra" may be a synonym for scandal in Washington, DC, but in California could it become a synonym for reform? Solyndra, of course, is the now-bankrupt Silicon Valley solar energy manufacturer that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees. The Washington fascination is with What Did the White House Know and When […]
The strange politics of small gestures
On a slow news day, Speaker Perez grandiosely announced he would transfer a $1.2 million surplus from the Assembly’s budget to, of all places, the Secretary of State’s Office to "confront the massive delay in the processing of business filings," by helping the office tackle a backlog of nearly 200,000 documents. The Speaker’s putative reason […]
The Legislature breaks its word, most cravenly
Every year for the last two-and-a-half decades a lobbyist friend and I
break down the recently-departed legislative session. Our exchange usually goes
something like this:
Me: I can’t believe that crowd, they can’t possibly sink any lower than
this.
Her: Loren, they can always go lower.
In point of fact, the special talent of the Legislature is to find new
and different ways to astonish and disappoint even the most gimlet-eyed
observer.