Word: californiaisms
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Conservatives view the budget crisis as an opportunity to slash California's spending back to the level it had reached 10 years ago. "Gross overspending and fiscal irresponsibility will not be tolerated by the people of California," says Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth. Liberals, however, see this as an attack by the right on the public infrastructure that helped make California an economic giant, and an act of war against the poor and minority populations in particular...
Conservatives claim California is a high tax state. In fact, California's taxes are similar to other high-tech, industrial states. According to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office and the Tax Foundation, California has comparatively high sales taxes and rates for corporate income, but very low property taxes. State income taxes are very progressive, with a large proportion of revenue comes from households earning more than $100,000, as well as from taxes on stock options and capital gains. Low-income households, meanwhile, face lower tax rates that in most other states. This tax system, says Steve Peace, director...
...state's finances could be made more stable by raising income taxes on middle and low-income families - which would reduce the state's dependency on volatile stock and capital gains income - a big reason for the current catastrophic deficits. But that is all but politically impossible in California. (See pictures of polarizing politicians on LIFE.com...
...there a solution to California's dilemma? A number of reforms are receiving attention. On the tax and budget side, these include eliminating the need for a two-thirds majority vote on budget and tax matters and instituting a split-roll for property taxes that would allow homeowners to continue to pay according to the low rates mandated by Proposition 13, but require commercial property to be assessed at market value. To relieve the logjam in California politics, momentum is growing for an open primary system, in which the two top vote getters in the primary, regardless of party, would...
Business leaders and other civic leaders, meanwhile, are rallying behind the idea of a constitutional convention. That, of course, could be a can of worms. Erwin Chemerinsky, a leading constitutional scholar and dean of the University of California Irvine Law School, argues that advocates for budget sanity should first try a ballot measure to change the two-thirds vote requirement on budget and tax measures. "If a statewide initiative to eliminate the two-thirds majority requirement can pass, that will solve a lot of the problem," Chemerinsky says. "And then it makes sense to move on to a constitutional convention...