DiscussMormonism.com

moksha wrote:This insight came to me when I watched the local Salt Lake City news tonight and realized that despite the rote saying that ,"I vote for the person rather than the party", most often Mormons cast straight party votes. Perhaps that is because they regard voting as sacred, not secret or else do not want it known because anti-Mormons would use it as ammunition -- wait a minute, I might be mixing up my rote sayings.

The best way to totally defeat the Republican Party in Utah is to list the LDS Party on the ballot.

The Bay Area may have just signed its own death warrant with the passage of Proposition 30, one of the most shameful and despicable acts of legislation in American history.

Let me preface the article to come by pointing out that I am not some stodgy Republican or “Gospel of Wealth” libertarian who thinks himself holier than thou. I voted for Obama, because I support an increase in federal taxes along with a bunch of loophole closures. But don’t think for a minute that Proposition 30 is even a distant cousin of the reasonable tax increases that we fortunate Americans are likely to face next year.

Proposition 30 represents nothing less than an act of inter-generational extortion. It is aimed squarely at young people and entrepreneurs, and it will damage the Bay Area’s slipping grip on technology leadership. To fully understand why this tax is unacceptable, one has to view California from a multi-decade lens.

Back in 1978, our parents’ generation, the Baby Boomers, passed a law called Proposition 13, which put a permanent cap on their property taxes. The cap was so rigid that it basically cut off the state’s primary source of revenue. States like Florida, which don’t have such laws in place, are able to charge zero state income tax as a result of their property tax intake.

The law was fortuitous for the Baby Boomers, as it was soon followed by a wave of inflation and massive house price surges, to which they enjoyed only financial upside. What has happened since then is three decades of financial strain on California, with countless victims, including our schools. These perpetual financial woes exist despite extremely high income and sales taxes.

But now the situation has become so untenable, that the voters of California have decided to hike income taxes to levels that are unprecedented anywhere in the nation.

Nothing terrifies investors or entrepreneurs as much as the concept of expropriation. When governments decide to expropriate legally obtained assets, entrepreneurs who worked tirelessly to build businesses and investors who risked scarce capital end up with little to nothing for their troubles. In fact, developing countries often get saddled with country risk premiums, making it harder for them to attract capital because the mere threat their governments will someday seize profitable companies or industries keeps investors away.

So it’s all the more puzzling that California, home of Silicon Valley and the densest concentration of entrepreneurs in the nation (possibly the world) would pass Proposition 30 in last month’s election. Regardless of your personal views on the issues of taxing and spending, there is one thing that cannot be overlooked. Prop 30 includes a gigantic retroactive tax increase on legitimate capital gains and ordinary income that dates back to Jan. 1, 2012.

The top marginal rate jumps by 29.13 percent to a staggering 13.3 percent of income. Oddly, California doesn’t distinguish between ordinary income and capital gains in the way the federal government does. The result is that we have nearly doubled the 15 percent federal capital gains tax rate, and this applies to income earned in the past, for which taxes have already been paid.

Brackite wrote:I have to admit that California doesn't tax unprepared food like Utah does. When I was in Utah, I didn't like paying the tax on the food from Walmart and other stores. Moksha, you should tell the Utah legislature to abolish the tax on unprepared food there.

The New Orleans city sales tax is already 8%. Increasing the state sales tax is estimated to put the tax on your purchases up to 12%.