Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
On the March 3 primary ballot, there will be 231 different local and parcel taxes according to the California Taxpayers Association. This is not counting the hundreds of more taxes expected for the November ballot. As California continues to price its residents out of the state, middle and upper-class citizens will have only one option: leave.
It seems impossible that anyone would actually vote for the increases, but the chance of them passing is actually quite likely. The simple truth is that Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans throughout California. Even in supposed red zones like San Diego, Republicans are outnumbered two to one. In densely populated places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, the ratio is even higher.
Unfortunately, because of petty political reasons, everyone in the state will likely have to pay more in taxes. The state is currently in the middle of a booming economy and has the highest revenues in state history, but still requires more money. While people that vote for these tax increases believe that the money is for noble causes such as education, healthcare, and helping the poor, they actually only serve one primary purpose: paying for underfunded pensions.
Due to Democrats desperately wanting union votes, pension costs are insanely high and millions are “entitled” to them. Stories of police officers or firefighters working 25-30 years and receiving a six figure pension with benefits for the rest of their lives have become the standard for the last few decades and unfortunately for taxpayers, someone has to pay for that.
Unfunded pensions are undoubtedly the greatest drain on any economy, state, local, or federal. To put it into perspective, the U.S. debt is roughly $23 trillion. If you include unfunded liabilities, the actual debt totals out to $122 trillion—more money than there is in the entire world. California is experiencing this on a much smaller scale. With the massive amount of money that is diverted towards funding these pensions, it’s no wonder that no government institutions ever have enough money.
When you see a massive amount of funding go to the police but they are still barely scraping by, the money isn’t going towards active police to hire officers and buy equipment, it’s going towards paying the pensions of retired officers that no longer work and have no obligation to the force. The same goes for why education budgets increase drastically every year while the teachers are still underpaid and the students are no more prepared than they were decades ago. This is what raises taxes and it’s unacceptable.
In an unsurprising move by Democrats, as they attempted to hide the tax increases and repeal a law that required full disclosure in order to prevent people from voting no on new tax measures because of knowing how much they cost. The repeal passed, but in a rare moment of clarity from Governor Gavin Newsom, he decided to veto the repeal and said “I am concerned that this bill as crafted will reduce transparency for local tax and bond measures.”
Unless the massive public pensions are scaled back greatly, tax raises will never end and the average, hardworking people of California will continue to get squeezed to help Democrats and entitled public workers. If this is not addressed, it won’t matter how large state pensions are because no one will be left to pay them.
For the last five years, California has had a net population decrease. Soon, the only people who can live in California will be welfare leeches and government employees. The only advice left for California residents will be that when you get to Texas or Arizona, don’t vote for Democrats and kill those states too.
