Let's
talk TAXES Part 2
Quoting from a June 15, 2018 commentary by Dan Walters: Politicians give
voters a double dose of sneakiness:
"When voters decreed a few years back that the state budget
no longer needed a two- thirds legislative vote to pass, they unwittingly applied
that looser standard to those ancillary measures that traditionally were written to implement the budget's appropriations.
Since the budget and its trailer bills take effect
immediately upon being signed by the governor, and therefore are immune to a
challenge by referendum, it was an invitation for governors and legislators to
load them up with decrees un- related to the budget.
Dozens of trailer bills are drafted only a few days, and
sometimes a few hours, before their enactment. Because they are also exempt from the usual legislative procedures, such as waiting periods and committee
hearings, they have become vehicles for doing things on the Sly. It's why some folks around the Capitol call them "mushroom bills" that sprout in the dark, fertilized with manure."
Several news sources have issued
warnings to the public that they should beware of increased taxes by State
politicians because Democrats solidified their supermajority in State
government.
As if on cue, the current legislature has
proposed taxes on sodas, tires, drinking water, firearms, dialysis centers,
lead-acid batteries, the 911 system and Governor Gavin Newsom has requested a
tax on phones and higher payroll taxes.
According to an Associated Press
article by Kathleen Ronayne (March 28, 2019), California voters will see a
constitutional amendment on the 2020 ballot which seeks to lower the voter
percentage from two-thirds to 55 percent on taxes and bonds identified as
infrastructure repairs by local cities and counties. Many provisions of Proposition 13 have been
under attack because it placed restrictions upon how government could raise
taxes. If this new Legislative Amendment
should pass, one more protection from unlimited taxation by Proposition 13 will
be effectively eliminated.
But
there's more. The CalPERS and CalSTRS (a pension program
for public employees and teachers), have a common thread: They each lack
sufficient money to pay for pension benefits workers have already earned. These pension funds have a combined unfunded
liability of more than $200 billion.
Your
city, county or state has entered into agreement with employee unions
establishing an unrealistic pension formula.
The public employee pension is not calculated in accordance to actual
contributions made, as is the case with social security, but instead offers the
reverse formula whereby the participant can be awarded retirement based upon a
percentage (2 or 3%) times an average of his highest income years, times the
number of years served.
A Hidden Tax: The alarming reality
is, in the event there is not sufficient funds to handle retirement pay, the
California taxpayer is on the hook to pay for any losses or shortfalls to the
system - which currently amounts to more than $200 billion.
It is time for California voters to pay more
attention to what State and local politicians are doing.
Piper's
Papers