Good News for leftists, neo-communists, and Marxists

[_Droopy]

The massive and multitudinous tax increases that are now lurking just behind the casket containing the body of what was once a constitutional republic:

Not only did the President and his partners in Congress take $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for Obamacare, but they also raise taxes by $836.3 billion to pay for it, with $36.3 billion hitting Americans in 2013 alone. Here’s the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation‘s (JCT) updated cost of the Obamacare tax hikes and penalties.

[_Brackite]

If you think that the tax increases are going to be bad Nationwide, look how bad the tax increases are going to be in California:

Business leader frets over tax increases

Updated 4:58 p.m., Friday, November 9, 2012

Robert Lapsley is a worried man.

For one thing, he warned a group of business leaders in San Francisco Thursday, you'd better start meeting with your tax advisers right away. That's because - if you didn't already know - those tax increases on the wealthy passed by state voters this week are retroactive, meaning some people will be coughing up more taxes on income earned this year.

Add to that the possible end of the federal Bush-era tax cuts, and the elimination or cutting back of other tax breaks and loopholes, and the money starts to seriously add up.

The president of the California Business Roundtable didn't stop there. The state's cap-and-trade program, scheduled to take effect next week, will cost heavy industry as much as $3 billion in its first year of operation, and up to $6 billion a year by 2015 to purchase mandated emission allowances, he says. With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, he says, health care costs for many businesses are also likely to rise.

Most worrisome, however, is the postelection landscape in Sacramento, where for the first time since 1933 one party has a veto-proof supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, he noted.

"The Legislature will want to backfill the spending cuts made over the last five years. Every tax increase will be called a fee. This is what we're prepared for. These could be grim times," said Lapsley, speaking at a conference at the City Club sponsored by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

Lapsley appears not to have taken much comfort from state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who talked on Wednesday of "bringing in more revenue" for schools, health and human services and the courts, and placing limits on ballot initiatives - particularly, some people believe, the tax-reduction kind.

But, Steinberg added, "I certainly don't intend to suggest to my colleagues that the first thing we do with our new powers is to go out and seek to raise more taxes. We can begin investing more when the budget is stable, and I think the budget now will be stable."

Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday that any new tax proposals would have to be voted on by the people, and noted that the passage of Proposition 30 is "just going to keep us from getting deeper into this financial black hole, but it won't get us out of the hole. We have to make sure over the next few years that we pay our bills, we invest in the right programs, but we don't go on any spending binges," he said.

To Lapsley, California's Democratic governor "is now the sole backstop for the business community," but he also hopes the private sector reaches out to a "business-friendly Democratic coalition in the Legislature to head off what we fear coming."

As in Washington, Sacramento lawmakers - and there are business-friendly Democrats among them - are making encouraging noises. "We're not looking to figure out new ways to do things that we've said we're not going to do," said Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles. That includes raising taxes.

More immediately, a business coalition called the AB32 Implementation Group, which includes the California Business Roundtable, the Bay Area Council and the California Chamber of Commerce, has been circulating a petition and running online ads calling on Brown to delay implementation of the cap-and-trade program, pending some alterations. When asked Thursday, Brown's office said "the auction will take place on Nov. 14. We will be monitoring the program very closely and the Air Resources Board will make modifications as appropriate."

"It's a new world," said Lapsley. "and we're playing defense."

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomli ... 021688.php

Proposition 30 win no guarantee of fiscal safety for California

California's unstable tax base, debt and falling revenue are among the threats that could upend the budget despite the infusion from the passage of Proposition 30.

...

SACRAMENTO — The election wasn't even over Tuesday when state Treasurer Bill Lockyer's phone started ringing. Activists of all stripes had the same message for him: With voters apparently poised to approve billions of dollars in tax hikes, it was time to spend more money.

"They had to be reminded the money has already been spent," Lockyer said.

As California tries to shake its national reputation as a financial bungler, policymakers in Sacramento will be managing an estimated $6 billion in annual revenue from Gov. Jerry Brown's newly approved tax plan, Proposition 30. The money is already included in the budget the governor signed last summer.

The bloodletting that has become a ritual part of assembling the state budget is expected to fade. But some of the issues that have made California's financial problems so persistent remain and could still create a budget gap if things don't go as planned.

In essence, analysts say, voters have stabilized the patient, but surgery may still be required.

Brown has long acknowledged that fixing the state's fiscal problems will require more work. He told reporters last week that "there are no cure-alls" and pledged to hold the line against new spending. As the former seminary student often does, he used a biblical allusion to make his point.

"We need the prudence of Joseph," he said.

The governor's plan will increase the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years and raise levies on high earners by one to three percentage points for seven years. Passage of Proposition 30 prevents billions of dollars in education cuts and gives the state an opportunity to end the fiscal year without a deficit for the first time in five years.

But California still has the lowest credit rating of any state. Its tax system is unstable. Borrowing costs remain high, and there are signs that the Brown administration's current $91.3-billion budget may be fraying at the seams as savings fail to meet expectations.

"By no means is California out of the woods yet," said Kil Huh, a director at the Pew Center on the States in Washington. "They've built up a set of challenges that are daunting for any state."

For starters, swings in the stock market can have an outsize effect on California's budget because the state relies so heavily on income taxes paid by the wealthy. In 2010, the richest 1% of Californians earned 21.3% of the income in the state and paid 40.9% of the state income taxes, according to the most recent government data available.

...

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 1680.story

[_Bond James Bond]

Feels kinda crappy when things go against you in democracy doesn't it? Now you know how progressives feel about the War on Drugs and War in Iraq.

[_Droopy]

And that's only the beginning of the insanity Californian's allowed to pass at the state level, including allowing the Unions to get their greedly, power sweating fingers on the dues of their members - including Republican members - to fund their political activism.

California, in a very real sense, is no longer part of America. Sections of it are, of course, but that once great state is headed toward a North American version of a banana republic, and a majority of its people put the pedal to the floor yet again, on election day. California is now, for all intents, a declining, decadent, European welfare state politically, culturally, and demographically, with all that implies.

[_Droopy]

Feels kinda s****y when things go against you in democracy doesn't it? Now you know how progressives feel about the War on Drugs and War in Iraq.

No, I really, really don't (although, to be fair, I do think I understand quite clearly why progressives really don't like the war on drugs very much).

[_EAllusion]

1.5 billion projected from a sin tax on tanning surprised me. That's a lot of money generated from tanning.

[_cinepro]

SACRAMENTO — The election wasn't even over Tuesday when state Treasurer Bill Lockyer's phone started ringing. Activists of all stripes had the same message for him: With voters apparently poised to approve billions of dollars in tax hikes, it was time to spend more money.

"They had to be reminded the money has already been spent," Lockyer said.

I cried in my Cheerios when I read that this morning.

I suspect many Californians will have their most startling wake up call about our state's finances when they come to realize Prop 30 isn't actually fixing anything, and there will still be massive pain further down the road.

[_ajax18]

I suspect many Californians will have their most startling wake up call about our state's finances when they come to realize Prop 30 isn't actually fixing anything, and there will still be massive pain further down the road.

I know there's been an exodus from California for some time now, but do you think more people (business owners) are going pull up stakes and retreat Cinepro or will warm weather and family ties hold you there forever? The Tea Party leader said that conservatives should just stop fighting and let California become a laboratory of liberalism, perhaps even an example to the American people of what awaits them.