In 2016, Californians voted on 87 new local tax and bond measures and approved 67 of them. Now, in 2020, California Taxpayers Association has concluded that there are 231 total tax-related measures on the ballot, ranging from blanket property taxes to sales taxes and everything in between in an attempt to allocate more money for schools, parks, law enforcement, road paving, and all kinds of other government services.
Usually, this would be a good thing to improve schools and other services, however, why is it that there’s a 165 percent increase in measures to increase flow in revenue for these services considering 67 already passed in 2016?
This increase is directly attributed to the irresponsible spending of Democratic lawmakers and bureaucrats. With the rise in obligations to pay the ever-expanding pensions provided by the state, funds have had to be moved around from other programs to pay out what was promised. While the money from these new measures may not flow directly into these pension programs, they are replacing the money that is being taken out of crucial public services to meet these obligations.
In a report on school funding, legislative analysts noted that pension costs have increased by $4.7 billion since 2013, and by 2021 they expect another increase of over $800 million. The local government issues really highlight the problems with the spending woes in California, pension payouts average around eight percent in 2006 and are expected to double by 2025. Los Angeles City puts aside an astonishing 20 percent of its budget for the pensions.
Yes, while these measures look to increase taxes to funnel money into funding public services, a good share of that money is going to replace money that was already taken out of those budgets. What is more concerning is that there’s no end in sight for this spending and with the pension payouts continually increasing, this only means more measures and more tax increases are on the way.
It’s concerning that Democrats blatantly lie to the public about their spending habits, almost like an addict with an uncapped credit card. With no accountability, we will almost certainly watch them continue to swipe that plastic, and we will have to foot the bill with more of our hard-earned cash.
