neutrino23

Is California in Need of a Bailout?

I agree with Alan Young. Last week's vote was not against higher taxes but a protest to the astoundingly lousy choice given to us.

I also agree that Prop 13 is at the root of the funding mess we're in. California doesn't need a bailout. California for years has paid more to the feds in taxes than it receives back. There is a lot of money here but it is being selectively taxed. Sales taxes are rather high, but commercial property tax is very low. Automobile taxes were cut dramatically by Arnold. Look where that got us.

Restore the car tax, eliminate Prop 13 and tax equal property at an equal rate and we can eliminate the financial problems here.

There was an argument at the time Prop 13 was being proposed that seniors on fixed incomes suffered unfairly due to rapidly rising property values. That is a fixable problem by itself without distorting the entire structure for generating revenue for the state.

The big place to cut the budget is spending on prisons. Roughly speaking we spend almost 15B$ each on prisons and higher education. We could probably cut half the cost of the prisons by reducing the prison population and renegotiating the contracts with the prison guards.

California ranks around 48th in the nation in education spending. If we cut more education spending we'll fall off the list entirely. We'll have to start comparing spending with that of third world nations.