I have been stating in this Thread here that a high State sales tax hurts mostly the Poor and Low-income earning People.
The Following Post is From MadMonk:
Sales taxes are highly regressive. Assuming that a poor person and a rich person bought the same quantity of food and clothing, and purchased the same amount of services, the tax generated would amount to a far higher percentage of the poor person's income than of the rich one's. This is why the Federal income tax was instituted in the first place: it just wasn't possible, even back then, to raise enough income with import/export duties and excise and sales taxes. Try it again today, and you will find it impossible even to fund those government programs you approve of.
Link: viewtopic.php?p=443146#p443146 Yet, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has been doing all he can to extend California's High State Sales Tax for at least another four Years. The State of California currently still has the highest minimum State sales tax in the United States.
The Following is From Wikipedia:
California Main article:
Sales and use taxes in California At 8.25%,
California has the highest minimum state sales tax in the United States, which can total up to 10.75% with local sales tax included.[51] Partly this rate compensates for the much reduced property tax revenue brought on by Proposition 13. Sales and use taxes in the state of California are collected by the publicly elected Board of Equalization, whereas income and franchise taxes are collected by the Franchise Tax Board.
In general, sales tax is required on all purchases of tangible personal property to its ultimate consumer. Services are not subject to sales tax (but may be subject to other taxes). Liability for sales tax attaches to the seller, not the buyer; but the seller is allowed by law to collect the tax from the buyer (and if the seller does so, the buyer is obligated to pay it). Unprepared food, bakery items, hot beverages, livestock, crops and seeds, fertilizer used to grow food, certain devices related to alternative energy, and one-time sales are among the items exempt from sales tax.
Critics of the current sales tax regime charge that it gives local governments an incentive to promote commercial development (through zoning and other regulations) over residential development, including the use of eminent domain condemnation proceedings to transfer real estate to higher sales tax generating businesses.[52]
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxe ... California California’s State Sales Tax of 8.25% is set to go down to 7.25% this coming July 1st. It was the Republicans within the State Legislator that stopped Democratic Governor Jerry Brown of extending California’s High Sales tax rate, which is still at 8.25%.
And remember that Democratic Governor Jerry Governor approved cuts to the poor, the disable and the elderly.
The Following information is From California Budget Bites:
SSI/SSP Cut Means Life’s About To Get Tougher for Seniors and People With Disabilities
Another round of state budget cuts means that life is about to get tougher for low-income California seniors and people with disabilities. One of the budget-related bills signed by Governor Brown last week further reduced cash assistance provided through the Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) Program. The Legislature cut SSI/SSP grants for individuals by $15 per month effective July 1, 2011, reducing the maximum grant from $845 to $830, the lowest level allowed by federal law. The current cut comes on top of the $62-per-month reduction made in 2009, for a total loss of $77 per month (8.5 percent). Starting in July, SSI/SSP grants will provide individuals with an annual income of just $9,960 – $930 below the federal poverty line of $10,890. Couples were spared any cuts this year only because the Legislature already reduced their grants to the federal minimum in 2009.
...
SSI/SSP grants have lost substantial purchasing power since 1990, and the current cut will further compromise the ability of 1.3 million low-income California seniors and people with disabilities to afford necessities, such as housing and groceries. For example, the federal government estimates that an elderly woman living alone has to spend about $180 per month on food in order to maintain a minimally adequate diet. By this standard, the $77-per-month cut represents nearly two weeks of groceries. SSI/SSP recipients are not eligible for food assistance through the CalFresh Program, formerly known as food stamps. Therefore, recipients face difficult choices about how to manage their reduced income, such as eating less and/or relying on food banks or other charities.
If there’s a saving grace, it’s that the state can’t cut SSI/SSP grants any further without triggering a severe federal penalty – the loss of all federal funding for the Medi-Cal Program. However, that may be small consolation for more than 1 million of California’s most vulnerable residents who are trying to eke out an existence well below the poverty line.
– Scott Graves
Link: http://californiabudgetbites.org/2011/0 ... abilities/ Here is the latest news out of the State of California, which is from the Sacramento Bee:
AP Enterprise: Unions wary of Brown's tax election
By ADAM WEINTRAUB
Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Jun. 23, 2011 - 11:24 am
Last Modified: Thursday, Jun. 23, 2011 - 3:54 pm
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown has struggled to find the four Republican votes he needs for the centerpiece of his budget proposal - a special election on higher taxes - but he also faces resistance from the Democratic Party's most influential supporters.
The public employee unions and labor groups that backed his election last year, fund the campaigns of the Democratic lawmakers who are essential to his success and would be needed to finance a ballot measure campaign have been cool to his push for a special election.
Unions support the higher taxes but are wary of the spending limits and pension reforms Republican lawmakers want as part of any deal they might strike with Brown. They are even more nervous about a special election that could see voters shoot down the taxes and approve the other changes.
Even groups such as the California Labor Federation, which stood alongside Brown last week in support of his budget proposal, want to see details.
"We're open to the governor and the Legislature putting a broad coalition together" to prevent cuts to education and public safety, federation spokesman Steve Smith said. "But if you're talking about gutting retirement for California's workers in exchange for extending taxes for three to five years, we would have to take a hard look at that."
Brown and Democratic lawmakers already have trimmed a $26.6 billion deficit to $9.6 billion, primarily through spending cuts to welfare, health and social service programs.
The governor, a Democrat, has said deep cuts to schools, public safety and higher education will be needed to balance the budget for the coming fiscal year unless increases to the sales, vehicle and personal income taxes enacted two years ago are renewed. The increase to the income tax rate expired in January, and the higher sales and vehicle taxes will expire June 30.
The only budget plans Brown has presented this year involve asking the Legislature to call a special election so voters can decide whether to extend those taxes for up to five years. He promised during his gubernatorial campaign last year that he would only increase taxes if voters agreed to do so.
Brown said Thursday that he's still planning to bring higher taxes before the voters, whether through negotiations with GOP lawmakers or a ballot initiative. But legislators from both parties say a quick special election on taxes increasingly looks unlikely.
Officials with public employee unions are asking whether trading a relatively short boost in tax revenue for permanent pension changes and a spending limit is worth it. They want to cure the ongoing budget uncertainty that has hit their members with pink slips and furloughs without slashing benefits.
"I don't know that we can see spending a bunch of our members' money on something that's a one-time fix," said Ryan Sherman, a spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents state prison guards.
Recent surveys by the Field Poll and Public Policy Institute of California show weak public support for the specific tax extensions Brown desires.
Members of the California Teachers Association spent a week in May protesting at the Capitol and holding rallies throughout the state in support of the tax extensions. But the union wants specifics before it can take a position on Brown's plan for a special election and decide whether to spend money for a ballot campaign, union spokesman Jonathan Goldman said.
"We don't know if this would be a tax extension alone or there would be other things attached," he said.
The Service Employees International Union, which represents about 95,000 state government workers and is the largest state employee union, declined to comment on the prospect of a special election.
Earlier this month, a top union official expressed reservations about Brown's plan to hold a special election that would include the tax increases, pension reforms and a state spending cap.
"I think it's highly likely (the taxes) would lose," David Kieffer, executive director of the SEIU California State Council, told The Sacramento Bee.
...
Link: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/23/372284 ... rowns.html Edited To Add: Here is the Link, to my new "News From California" Thread here:
News From California: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22693"And I've said it before, you want to know what Joseph Smith looked like in Nauvoo, just look at Trump." - Fence Sitter