No new taxes?

and finally ... "Now, taxes on labor as it is exerted, on wealth as it is used as capital, or on land as it is developed will clearly discourage production -- much more than taxes levied on laborers whether they work or play, on wealth whether used productively or fruitlessly, or on land whether cultivated or left idle." check out the lvtfan blog if you can handle more than 650 characters!

lvtfan @ 11:50 AM PDT, Sep 17, 2008

650 characters ... not much when there is something important ... Easy to squelch thoughtful commentary! HG continues... The method of taxation is, in fact, just as important as the amount. A small burden poorly placed may hinder a horse that could easily carry a much larger load properly adjusted. Similarly, taxes may impoverish people and destroy their power to produce wealth. Yet the same amount of taxes, if levied another way, could be borne with ease. A tax on date trees caused Egyptian farmers to cut down their trees; but twice the tax, imposed on land, had no such result.

lvtfan @ 11:49 AM PDT, Sep 17, 2008

There are taxes which damage the economy, and there are taxes which don't. Which taxes we choose does matter. As Henry George (1839-1897) put it: "It is obvious that all taxes come from the product of land and labor. There is no source of wealth other than the union of human exertion with the materials and forces of nature. But equal taxes may have very different effects on production, depending on how they are imposed.

lvtfan @ 11:47 AM PDT, Sep 17, 2008

If regular state, county, and city employees are doing most of the hard work and barley getting by with there pay, well high paid officials are getting more money then they need, why are we in a fiscal crisis? Just cut the pay of these officials. There not doing a good job anyway. I have a solution to shorten the deficit, have Arnold get paid what Im getting paid.

Wake up people @ 11:10 AM PDT, Sep 17, 2008

But, Arnold does support new taxes and so does John McCain. Arnold has said he will support the tax on motorists to use the roads they've already paid for with tolls on Carpool lanes. John McCain supports this too! Sarah Palin cut property taxes to business and had the largest sales tax increase in Wasilla, ever. They like to tax the working middle class, they just don't like to tax the rich. No new taxes on their friends is more like it.

BOB2 @ 7:49 AM PDT, Sep 17, 2008

More revenue is the solution? You mean, tax people more for the failures of legislators? I don't think so. Tom McClintock has been championing budget reform and fiscal responsibility for endless years. Democrats don't want to listen. But why not look back at 2005, the second special election, when the people of California rejected the Gov.'s attempts to make real reform to the budget process and re-districting? The people of CA got what they wanted: more government and less accountability, and more wasteful spending.

Tom @ 6:33 AM PDT, Sep 17, 2008

The baseline point is that the spending is too large. You can increase taxes, but that will only serve to drive out of Ca the productive people. Actually, writing as a Republican, I think that the Democrats are in a better position to make the difficult trades of what services the state will provide. The action on Wall Street the last few days should provide an insight as to the speed the CA state budget will collapse. I support the veto.

blair @ 10:12 PM PDT, Sep 16, 2008

It will be very easy to do "no new taxes". Just eliminate ALL the subsidies like solar power, solar cars, tax preferences, agriculture subsidies, cell research,education subsidies, prison subsidies, etc etc. They should also work to ELIMINATE a whole raft of laws so that the prision population is decreased. Let the market determine what works. It is so readily obvious that the state lawmakers and Governor,have no insight into what works best, so it comes down to pure pork. It wouldn't hurt eliminate the legislators and Governors salaries for every day they are late with the budget either.

John @ 9:30 PM PDT, Sep 16, 2008

Given the anemic state of the California economy, and the much worse So Cal economy, the old and tired approach of constantly raising taxes needs to be reviewed and overhauled. Raising taxes via constant increases is simply not working. It's obvious that the way we have been running our public services is deeply flawed. Let's start by acknowledging the obvious, that the old ways don't work, and then start thinking "outside the box" as it were. I would propose a ten percent across the board cut in the Sales tax, Corporate tax and Personal income tax. Then make the required adjustments to spending. Now that’s real reform for California!

Almost Inumerate @ 8:53 PM PDT, Sep 16, 2008

Start with telling the CA legislators that THEIR salaries will be reduced to min wage until an actual budget is approved & let’s see how long it takes. 2nd, all pay raises & retirement related increases should have to be approved by the people, not by the legislators themselves. As for a tax increase, I am not in favor of it. But, if in 2000 we had, say, five billion people in CA & now in 2008 we have 7.5 billion? Will the same incoming tax dollars work? But what’s the diff between a (sales) tax increase that you know you have to pay, & an increase in school fees or having to pay higher fees or higher deductibles for medical expenses?

Buster @ 6:24 PM PDT, Sep 16, 2008

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