Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad
Finance
(1)
Market Currents

After voters approved tax hikes for the rich in the recent election, California’s...

  • Tuesday, December 4, 2012, 3:12 AM ET
    After voters approved tax hikes for the rich in the recent election, California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office is forecasting that the state will enjoy a surplus of $1B by FY 2014-2015. Critics says the increases will lead to an exodus of residents, businesses and jobs, although Governor Jerry Brown's office points to a report which says that the link between tax policies and migration are untrue.
Track new comments on this story

This news story has 37 comments:

  • 2014...yeeah right....Jerry Brown is going to get educated real fast.....taxes don´t matter....Then why does every Corporation have an office in Ireland....?????
    4 Dec 2012, 06:15 AM Reply Like
  • With the modern American electorate, only the state's fiscal "health" matters. A $1B surplus must be good, of course. Regardless of the cost shouldered by the genuine wealth makers.
    4 Dec 2012, 06:57 AM Reply Like
  • Hollyweird saves the day! (As if that documentary will ever be produced.)
    4 Dec 2012, 07:06 AM Reply Like
  • california? where there is a super majority which is a super majority because of make the rich pay their share?

    where they gonna go? somewhere tropical to get a spider bite or some lung fungus? beaten up by federales, hunted for a local murder? empty threats. florida? not likely, too crass.

    california signalled the reagan revolution, a generation ready to listen to stories of the big valley as if they were real, because it gave them comfort.

    now california is signalling another generational shift is sweeping the country.

    people talk about californians being stupid or crazy or lefties. if they were, they wouldn't be so g.d. rich. now would they?

    tick tick tick, now that california's doing it it's only a matter of time.
    4 Dec 2012, 07:53 AM Reply Like
  • Something tells me the WEALTHY people that generated this surplus won't be seeing a penny of it back. It will likely end up in the abyss that is CA state government
    4 Dec 2012, 07:58 AM Reply Like
  • images of wagon trains of corporations and wealthy headin'...East, packed with their worldly possessions in search of the optimal taxation land
    4 Dec 2012, 08:30 AM Reply Like
  • They don't have to go far. It's called Texas.
    4 Dec 2012, 08:55 AM Reply Like
  • The same Texas that closed a $31 billion budget shortfall last year primarily with accounting tricks? The same Texas that's on the hook for billions more in unused sick and vacation time owed to its enormous payroll? The same Texas in which cities have raised sales taxes to continue paying for socialist programmes the state cut?

    No, thanks. Texas talks big but is really no different from California. But if you have a real alternative -- say, a state in which the state's constitution prohibits the state and all of its combined political entities from consuming more than 5% of the state's GDP -- I'd like to hear about it. It's spending that has to be strictly limited if taxes are to be kept low. Everything starts and ends with spending. Put hard caps on spending, and you'll never have to worry about taxes.
    4 Dec 2012, 11:03 AM Reply Like
  • No, I'm not moving to Texas, and yes, I'm happy to pay my fair share of taxes in California. It's up to all of us to do our part to make a society that we want to live in. You folks who are interested in turning this country into a Banana Republic, please move to one.
    4 Dec 2012, 11:25 AM Reply Like
  • @pollyserial

    You'd rather have Greece or Spain?
    4 Dec 2012, 11:45 AM Reply Like
  • Yes she does, because her arguments are all emotions...
    4 Dec 2012, 12:14 PM Reply Like
  • I have to find the study that compared the actual taxes between Texas and California. Texas has the reputation of being tax free but when you add everything up, the taxes actually come out even. It's all about perception.
    4 Dec 2012, 12:24 PM Reply Like
  • Nope. Even if they were the exact same, Texas wins out the regulation side for business and job creation.

    You have places trying to ban happy meals, plastic bags and raise the minimum wage to $12/hr in CA.
    4 Dec 2012, 12:28 PM Reply Like
  • Regulations are there for a reason, you could argue the economic costs of pollution and increased health care costs from things like plastic bags and happy meals.

    I say we bring back lead based paint.

    By the way, some of the regulations here in California have given manufacturers a competitive advantage selling into foreign markets, as our products are judged as being very safe due to regulatory compliance to safety standards.
    5 Dec 2012, 01:48 AM Reply Like
  • Having no backup refinery recently worked out well for you guys thanks to your gasoline regulations.....
    5 Dec 2012, 06:50 AM Reply Like
  • You do realize there are 20 refineries in California right?
    6 Dec 2012, 01:44 AM Reply Like
  • Only one of them matters

    http://bit.ly/RDSj1u
    6 Dec 2012, 06:32 AM Reply Like
  • Not only are the refineries a problem, CA has no connection to the rest of the oil pipeline infrastructure in the gulf, midwest and rockies. And thanks to wanting to be "different" than everyone else with respect to summer gasoline requirements and such, they pay through the nose when there is any supply disruption.

    Sounds like fertile ground for business development....
    6 Dec 2012, 10:08 AM Reply Like
  • CHOP, just say EPA...
    6 Dec 2012, 12:32 PM Reply Like
  • I know it made a headline, but what does the "man on the street SA reader" think the odds are of California seeing a $1B dollar surplus in FY 2014-2015?

    And who will remember the projections and ask why if they miss big?
    4 Dec 2012, 08:36 AM Reply Like
  • Zero.
    4 Dec 2012, 08:46 AM Reply Like
  • I'll tell you what I think the odds of a surplus happening are: minus 75%.

    The "California Legislative Analyst’s Office" must have their findings reviewed by the California Overseer of Legislative and Analysts Offices." They in turn have their figures checked by the Golden State Department of Facts, Figures, Weights and Measures. Overseeing that is the Board of Commissioners of the Bureau of Facts, Figures, Weights and Measures, and they have to submit their findings to the intern working in the Governor's office.

    Wait...I now revise my estimate upwards to minus 25%.
    4 Dec 2012, 08:47 AM Reply Like
  • Zero. Because if this projection is still being made when the time comes to pass the budget for 2014-15, more spending will surely be added. It's a vicious circle; taxes rise, it starts to look like the budget will be balanced finally, someone comes along and insists that we think of the children, spending rises, budget shortfalls crop up, budget shortfalls get worse, issuing debt and paying bills becomes very difficult, taxes rise. Lather, rinse, repeat.

    Those of you in the rest of the US should look very carefully at California, specifically as an example of what one-party rule looks like. There is little or nothing to like about the Republican Party, but it will be missed all the same.
    4 Dec 2012, 10:54 AM Reply Like
  • BWAHAHAHA

    - man on the street SA reader
    4 Dec 2012, 08:39 AM Reply Like
  • Every time the raise taxes they project a surplus..this is nothing new. The end result however is opposite of what is intended and this will produce the same. Their solution in a couple of years? As in the past and today, raise taxes, followed by surplus projection while in the midst of a death spiral. Sad.
    4 Dec 2012, 08:41 AM Reply Like
  • Some people still do not know the difference between tax REVENUE and tax RATES...just today on Bloomberg a reporter made a big mistake....but I think they do it on purpose...
    4 Dec 2012, 08:50 AM Reply Like
  • The only way California ever sees a surplus again is if they get a massive Federal bailout.
    4 Dec 2012, 08:59 AM Reply Like
  • CA is a disaster. Eventually The only people left will be union schlubs, illegals and poor.
    4 Dec 2012, 09:13 AM Reply Like
  • One of my favorite hits "California Dreamin."
    4 Dec 2012, 09:22 AM Reply Like
  • Here's the ticket to a $1billion surplus...the federal government will take over the liability for all state pension funds starting with Illinois (I wonder why?) and California.

    Wanna bet that happens in the next four years?
    4 Dec 2012, 09:50 AM Reply Like
  • Sooner than that. Those states cannot wait four years. When it happens, muni holders will get a spankin' like the GM bond holders did a few years ago.
    4 Dec 2012, 11:42 AM Reply Like
  • You can bet your life...that Obama will bail out his base....he will call it investment or something...but he WILL bail them out
    5 Dec 2012, 11:09 AM Reply Like
  • Great job Gov. Brown. We saw him manage our finances before successfully and now he's doing it again. He takes alot of criticism but the guy has a track record for getting it done. By the way the people of California voted for him so it's our decision not anyone else's.
    4 Dec 2012, 12:24 PM Reply Like
  • Hear is some really good news for you, Lightway....It is only going to get worse...Perhaps, Hollywood could do a California Aid, with Willie Nelson...

    http://bit.ly/ZbOPp0-/
    11 Dec 2012, 03:50 PM Reply Like
  • Calilalaland can vote themselves lavish things and live in their fantasy world BUT do NOT expect fed govt bailout. These schmoes need to feel the pain for their excessive freeloading.
    6 Dec 2012, 12:38 PM Reply Like
  • i was talking to a rich lady who got rich writing pop songs and designing for the rich in california. and she got richer as a designer and a contractor in california.

    and she did that by making sure that her product was always top rate, no stinting, no cheats, no hides.

    she always says, if california is so crazy, why does it have so many rich people? some of you would do well to educate yourselves using the works of dash hammet or raymond chandler.

    old old money in california which must be ok, on balance, with this happening. or it wouldn't be.
    12 Dec 2012, 08:30 AM Reply Like
  • Helf or yelp!
    12 Dec 2012, 12:55 PM Reply Like
Other date
DJIA (DIA) S&P 500 (SPY)