Living as I do in the heart of liberal nirvana, The People's Republic of California, I find it somewhat rare to be surprised by the incompetence of our elected officials. In an interesting parallel to domestic abuse victims, who check out of the hospital to then bail their abuser from jail, we the great hoi polloi continue to send the same people to the State House and think that we're somehow going to get a different result.
The dysfunctional California Republican Party no longer registers as a credible opposition, thus bringing the rise of the NPP (no party platform) candidates who, while having great ideas and goals, aren't organized into one focused group and thus the lackeys of the unions get to go unchecked.
Case in point, while facing a State deficit of $16 billion, Governor Brown continues to push for the high speed train to nowhere project at a cost of $69 billion that we have no method of paying for. Not to mention that we have a cheap, reliable and fast way of traveling between SF, SJ & LA, which would indicate that the ridership projections are somewhat laughable. Only in California would this not be granted a loud "WTF"?
As we already pay the highest taxes in the nation in return for some of the lousiest schools and worst roads, I am generally opposed viscerally to the idea of new taxes, however Prop 29 might be one that I can actually sign on for. Basically a $1 tax on a pack of cigarettes that's projected to raise $735 million for cancer research. If we can believe for one short moment that Moonbeam and his comrades won't immediately appropriate the funds for high speed rail or saving the spotted owl, this could be a good idea. Bear with me one second. I don't smoke, I don't know anyone any more that smokes and those that do smoke know that they're probably going to get cancer so they might actually appreciate the cancer research. So, as we know when you tax something you get less of it ( like earnings, but I digress) the tax would probably have a bunch of people quit smoking, not a bad thing, it would also prevent a bunch of kids from taking up smoking, also not a bad thing. The money raised would be ( Moonbeam aside) used for research which by definition means hiring Doctors and research assistants etc. Also good. The only people "harmed" by the tax are the people who smoke and paying it is a choice. Now if we can figure out a way to impose a tax on being fat and marijuana we could help fund other well intentioned research projects.
On the other "success tax" of 3.5% on our highest earners, I have to point out that successful people and their capital are portable and just about any example of so doing has earned way less revenue than anticipated as the successful generally take their capital to where its most welcome- Increasingly Austin TX.
It's very easy, almost tempting, to demonize the wealthy as not paying "their fair share" even though they the Top 5% are already paying 60% of taxes collected. It's also easy to point to the teachers that will be laid off if we don't increase our taxes, but where is our collective outrage about the number of State retirees, retired at 50 on almost full pay. They neither risked their capital nor contributed much to to their retirements to be able to live in the lap of luxury on our dime for 30-40 years. Maybe we can be more inclined to support the idea of new taxes, when the elected buffoons in Sacramento can prove themselves to be more competent stewards of its citizens money.
In the meantime, we do have a choice of bankrupt states to live in, but the other choices don't include 300+ days of sunshine, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, The Beach etc. Still a great place to live, but then again I would suspect that living of the Gov't tittie in Santorini would be quite pleasant too.
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