California is the least tax-friendly state according to new rankings from Kiplinger. Much of that unfriendliness is due to the 2012 Proposition 30, which imposed the highest income tax rate in America, 13.3 percent, and also raised the sales tax to 7.5 percent, also highest in the nation. Proposition 30 was pitched as a temporary measure, with the sales tax hike set to expire in 2016 and the income tax hike in 2018. As we recently noted, the California Teachers Association, Service Employees International Union and other government employees unions are pushing a measure that would extend the income tax hike to 2030. State education superintendent Tom Torlakson (D-CTA) backs the measure. Now another group is getting into the act.

As Christopher Cadelago explains in the Sacramento Bee, the SEIU and other groups want to “expand and make permanent the Proposition 30 income tax increases on the state’s highest earners.” Their measure would “increase taxes on couples earning at least $580,000 annually,” which were set to expire in 2018. It would also “impose even higher income tax rates for so-called “super-earner” couples that make more than $2 million a year.” Heading the measure is Ace Smith, “who ran the original Proposition 30 campaign and Brown’s gubernatorial campaigns.” What a cozy world. But of course, it’s all for the children, not for California’s government employees, who as Jon Coupal notes are the highest paid in all 50 states but always want more. “No matter how high taxes are increased,” Coupal says. “It’s never enough for public officials and bureaucrats who live off taxpayer funded paychecks.”

The ruling class ruse is to pitch something as temporary then extend it or make it permanent. The California Coastal Commission, an unelected body that overrides elected governments on property rights issues, started temporary then became permanent. Withholding from workers’ paychecks started as a temporary measure during World War II, but politicians made it permanent. Government bosses like getting workers’ money before they do. Meanwhile, as the two bids to extend Proposition 30 tax hikes confirm, government greed is truly fathomless.