As this column documents, the federal government is an engine of waste, fraud and abuse lately exemplified by Obamacare and the stimulus package. For their part, state governments are fond of boondoggles such as California’s so-called “bullet train.” But when calculating the cost of government, taxpayers would be wise to factor in local waste…
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California deploys some of the highest income and sales taxes in the nation, but the Golden State’s pillage people are worried that they might not be high enough. They now want to more than double registration fees on motor vehicles, more accurately known as the car tax. The car tax is based on .65…
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SB 768, by California state senator Kevin de Leon, would raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 87 cents a pack to $2. The increase, which comes on top of federal taxes, would raise the price of a pack of cigarettes to more than $8. Backers of the bill say the tax…
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California governor Jerry Brown has approved legislation that hikes the current minimum wage of $8.00 an hour to $10.00 an hour by 2016. Supporters of the legislation say this “moral imperative” will help workers and their families but it’s more likely to harm them. As Thomas Sowell notes, 90 percent of American economists find…
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In California between 1974 and 1978 property taxes increased 120 percent and people worried they might lose their homes. Enter Proposition 13, which amended the state’s constitution to limit the growth of property taxes—appropriately enough, as 35 years ago the state was running a budget surplus. The measure capped property tax rates for residential…
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The November election made California the highest-tax state in the nation by raising the top rate of state income tax to 13.3 percent, an increase of 29.13 percent. Sales tax now ranges from 7.5 percent to 10 percent in parts of Los Angeles County. But the same legislators who pledged fiscal restraint now want…
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While California was closing parks and state employees giving themselves unauthorized vacation buyouts, the state Parks Department was concealing nearly $54 million for more than a decade. A Democratic legislator denounced this “deceit and thievery” and wondered how much more money state employees had stashed away. In the Parks Department, it’s at least $3.9…
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The November election made California the highest-tax state in the nation by raising the state income tax to 13.3 percent, an increase of 29.13 percent. Governor Jerry Brown claimed the increase would boost revenues by some $6 billion and solve the Golden State’s budgetary woes. But according to state Controller John Chiang, total state…
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In the mid-1800s, Sutter Creek and Amador City were centers of the California gold rush. Now for the first time in 50 years the Mother Lode is again the scene of mechanized mining. The Sutter Gold Mining Co. operates a modern $20 million complex, complete with ventilated tunnels, laboratories and a mill. The operation…
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Pretend for a moment that you’ve just been elected to public office and that you now have the power to choose whose income you’re going to tax to pay for all the vital government programs you believe should be supported. If you want to keep those vital government programs on a sound financial footing,…
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