California Democrats clearly suffer from an inability to learn from the past. They repeat their mistakes and exacerbate problems rather than finding reasonable solutions.
In 1978, the citizens of California were being forced to leave their homes due to astronomically high property taxes. They fought back with Proposition 13, which made property tax one percent of the property purchase price and limited annual increases to two percent per year. This allowed California property owners to safely predict the increases in their property taxes and plan accordingly.
Now, the year is 2020 and the Democrats are at it again. Taxes in California are higher than ever, with the highest gas tax, income tax, and sales tax in the entire nation. People are leaving California in droves because they simply cannot afford to live here any longer. And it isn’t just individuals and families that can’t afford California’s taxes, as corporations are leaving as well.
So, are California Democrats concerned about this exodus? Not in the slightest. In fact, they are making plans to raise taxes even higher to pay for their impractical and bloated government programs. In 2019 alone, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law more than $4.4 billion in new taxes and fees. There has also been an effort to collect signatures to put a piece of legislation on the November ballot that would increase property taxes by $12.5 billion, effectively undoing Proposition 13.
There are many problems with higher taxes, including the fact that businesses are forced to charge more for their products and services as they try to stay out of the red. More and more people are forced into poverty by California’s overly aggressive taxation.
Democrats in San Diego and across the state clearly have little sympathy for their constituents, a sad fact that is proven again and again by poorly conceived tax increases. The state government is becoming more disconnected from the people it’s supposed to serve and ought to remember that actions have consequences. Namely, for hard-working citizens simply trying to make ends meet in California.
The result is California becoming an increasingly inhospitable place to live for average Americans. Families and businesses are not a piggy bank for the state government to exploit at will. Taxation is not a bandaid for thoughtless and carefree government spending. If these legislators don’t get their heads screwed on straight, people are going to keep leaving California. Who are they going to tax then?
