Prop. 30 Extension

Death and Taxes.  Like death, many taxes are permanent even if they are sold to the public as temporary.  Such may become the case with Proposition 30 passed in November 2012 by an 11% margin and retroactive to the beginning of that year.  Don't you just love retroactive taxation?  Prop. 30 added .25% to the state sales tax (now 7.5%) and bumped up the marginal California rates on the top 3% of earners.  Greater than $250K to 10.3%.  Greater than $300K to 11.3%.  Greater than $500K to 12.3%.  Greater than a mil to 13.3%.

Today's news from the SacBee is that

Last Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Office announced that a proposal to fund schools by extending the Proposition 30 income tax on the wealthy could begin collecting signatures. While popular with many Democratic politicians, the idea has middling support among California voters, and proponents of the measure – a mix of education and public employee unions – must contend with the fact that Gov. Jerry Brown promised in 2012 that the original tax would be temporary.

But hey, maybe the accelerating migration to Nevada, Texas or Washington is a good thing.  Less traffic.  Less need for high density housing.  Sounds like a plan.  Our friends and neighbors at the CA Teachers Association on Trousdale Dr. are feeling the pressure to lock in some taxes since they are faced with a solid lawsuit (Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association) that would allow teachers who are not in the union to avoid paying a $650 per year "agency fee".  That would put a real dent in the lobbying money that goes into passing Propositions and their extensions.

Comments

[Joe]

This comes via today's SacBee columnist Dan Walters:

Money has been pouring into the state treasury – primarily income taxes on the state’s most affluent. The Legislature’s own budget adviser, Mac Taylor, has projected $3.6 billion in unanticipated extra revenue this year.

Brown’s fellow Democrats in the Legislature have many proposals to increase spending on health, welfare and education services. While he has been enthusiastic about K-12 school spending and building reserves, he’s been skeptical about expanding the health and welfare services that legislators favor, or the pre-kindergarten education they also want.

Under the state’s long-standing school finance law and the more recent rainy-day fund law, much of the extra revenue will go to schools and reserves. State and local spending on schools, $47.3 billion when Brown returned to the governorship in 2011, is expected to top $71 billion next year.

That’s well over $10,000 per student, which will elevate California’s per-pupil spending into the middle ranks of the states.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article53532040.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

[Power to individual rights, not the false collective...]

What is a "Right To Work" state?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law

What is the argument to allow teachers to not pay an "agency fee" to The Cal Teacher's Union in Burlingame, if they disagree with The Union's political contributions or philosophy?

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/11/462607980/scotuspublicunions

[Joe]

This is another worthwhile read from Dan Walters:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article133751609.html