The High Tax Drumbeat

Many California politicians and business executives have contended that California is a high-tax state. As a result, this has become widely accepted in the public debate, even though comparisons show that California’s overall tax burden ranks at about the middle among all states. Here are some representative quotes.

“California is in sharp competition with other states and other nations that tax a lot less than we do. That’s why I insisted we hold the line against taxes last year. . . . We must hold the line again. But if we are to create new jobs, we’ll have to do more than reject higher taxes. If we are to create jobs, we’ll have to cut taxes.”

--Gov. Pete Wilson, from his 1993 State of the State address

“It was a mistake to the extent that we thought we had a one-time (deficit) situation rather than an ongoing situation. This was already a high-tax state when we did that, and a recession is obviously not a great time to increase taxes, making life more difficult for employers. . . . A sales tax increase is not a good thing for business.”

--Gov. Wilson, from an interview last year on why the 1991 tax hike was a mistake

“One of the heaviest tax burdens in the nation has cooled the customary cheerfulness of California’s taxpayers to cough up the cash for Sacramento’s binges.”

--Former Assemblyman Tom McClintock, now director of Center for the California Taxpayer

“Now, you don’t match them on the property tax. You don’t match them on the sales tax. . . . Your base income tax is higher. Kachunk, kachunk, kachunk. You just keep adding them up and pretty soon you say, ‘Yeah, guess what folks? Taxes matter.’ . . . “When it comes to incentives, taxes are very easy to look at because they are identifiable. I can’t quantify for you the permitting process. I can’t quantify for you the trouble with commuting. I can quantify taxes quite easily. That’s why it’s so easy to talk about taxes because it’s an obvious thing, it’s a number, it has no other effect on the company other than the number. It’s purely objective.”

--Robert H. Perlman, Intel’s vice president for tax, licensing and customs, on whether taxes matter as California competes with other states for business