How Bad Is the California Budget Crisis?
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 7/16/09 @ 12:19 pm - Filed Under Local Politics, State Politics
If you want to wrap your head around exactly how bad California’s $26 Billion budget deficit is try this:
If California eliminated the salaries of all 235,000 state employees they still wouldn’t have a balanced budget.
Just something to provide a little perspective during our state and local government’s upcoming budget struggles…
H/T - Mish
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8 Responses to “How Bad Is the California Budget Crisis?”
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That’s in spite of taxing everything in sight. During a year in Irvine, California I paid a 9.5% income tax, despite officially being a resident of Texas. They tried to tax the income of visiting pro athletes for games their teams played in the state, saying the income was earned in California. They also tried to tax the retirement income of residents who moved out of the state claiming the retirement income had been earned in the state. They taxed the refunds on returns of deposits of empty bottles.
Fortunately I was there for slightly less than a year. A friend who stayed for 13 months got a letter after he left threatening to garnish his wages because he had not gotten (and paid for) a California drivers license or car registration. They deserve every bit of misery their overspending has gotten them.
So, to be fair, they should not have taxed California-based players for the portion of their income earned while playing out of California, right? And they should not have taxed the retirement income of people who earned it in another state but moved to California to spend it. But I’ll bet you don’t see those exemptions in their tax code.
Our government (at all levels) is becoming little more than a sham. They find any excuse to tax people, regardless of the legitimacy. They make laws saying average citizens have access to public information and will be treated fairly by our judicial system, yet any honest and intelligent person knows you really only get to enjoy these benefits if you have enough money to sue.
I’m not really sure we’d be any worse off with no government at all. The government we have now often hinders our ability to do things for ourselves, telling us that they will do it better for us. Then they charge exorbitant fees for it while fasiling to deliver on their promises.
Recently had a chat with an unfortunate Californian who was forced to exist on a stipend of $1900 a month as compensation for being victimized by alcoholism. It was crimping his lifestyle to get by on so little, and he felt an upward adjustment for inflation was in order.
This is a perfect example of the welfare entitlement mentality that has brought the state to its knees. Are Califorinian’s all on drugs? Are they putting something in the water? For cripes sakes, if you can’t have the decency to drop into the Pacific, consider descending into anarchy and bumping each other off. Mass suicide. Anything you can think of to rid our nation of your pestilent presence. Your socialistic foulness is an intolerable poison to our system. Go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My son lives in Huntington Beach, and trust me, it’s every bit as fricked up as you think it is.
Keep in mind those states with lower tax rates and more responsible governments are subsidizing high tax states with the itemized deduction of state, local and property taxes.
Is it me or does the “governator” not take any blame for this mess? I swear I never hear anything bad said about him.
Ahhhh, but if California eliminated all of the free services/monies given to illegal aliens in the state, then THE STATE WOULD BALANCE ITS BUDGET.
Something you Fort Wayne folks need to wake up to… Mayor Henry hiring a ‘latino immigrant advocate’ was a very bad thing for Fort Wayne. He wants to ensure that latinos are taking advantage of taxpayer funded city services and apparently could give a shit less about the taxpayers themselves.
Hmmmmm, I wonder if Palermo Galindo (the Mayor’s latino advocate) is still operating his check cashing business (Centro de Deniro) in Fort Wayne while now on the city’s payroll?
What do you say we rent a big truck, load up all our old refrigerators and take a little vacation?