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| The California Collapse
Posted: 8/9/2009 8:34:19 AM | I actually had this argument stated to me a different way this morning.
The Health care bill is a 1000 pages of setting up bureaucracy. There are no specifics in the bill. This is not about Obama , or congress. This about trusting the government machine, those life long bureaucrats that will be creating the panels, boards and managers that will be creating the regulations with little or no congressional oversight. How many federal programs under the machine have gone out of control are bloated, and have created really bad regulations. DO you really trust the system. Be honest. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 7:27:43 AM | California Governor signs budget trailer bills including revenue acceleration provisions
As expected, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the state budget passed by the California Legislature, including two budget trailer bills that increase personal income tax withholding, accelerate the installment payments for personal income and corporation franchise and income taxes, retroactively revise the estimated tax underpayment penalty to conform the application of withholding credits to the revised estimated tax installment percentages, and generally conform to federal backup withholding provisions.
Withholding. A.B. 17 increases payroll withholding by 10%, effective for wages paid after October 31, 2009. Similarly, withholding on supplemental wages increase from 6% to 6.6% effective for supplemental wages paid after October 31, 2009. For stock options and bonus payments that constitute wages paid after October 31, 2009, the withholding rate increases from 9.3% 10.23%.
Estimated tax payments. The law also increases the second quarterly estimated tax payment from 30% to 40%, eliminates the third quarterly installment, and increases the fourth quarterly installment from 20% to 30%, applicable to installments due for each taxable year beginning after 2009. Adjustments would also be made to the installment percentages due in instances in which the estimated tax payment threshold is reached after the first quarterly installment due date.
Withholding credits. The law revises the estimated tax underpayment penalty provision that credits the amount of withholding against the estimated tax payments due. Under current law, withholding payments are applied equally against the quarterly estimated tax payments. If enacted, this bill would revise the amount of withholding payments to be applied to the estimated tax payments due to reflect the applicable percentage of estimated tax payments required to be paid, as discussed above. Consequently, applicable to amounts withheld on wages beginning after 2008, withholding payments would be applied at 30%, 30%, 20%, and 20%, and beginning with the 2010 tax year, withholding payments will be credited quarterly at percentages equal to 30%, 40%, 0%, and 30%.
Backup withholding. A.B. 18 requires payors to withhold 7% from specified reportable payments. This would generally conform to the federal backup withholding provisions. However, California's requirements would apply to rents, prizes and winnings, compensation for services, including bonuses, and other fixed or determinable annual or periodic gains, profits, and income, but would not apply to payments of interest and dividends or any release of loan funds made by a financial institution in the normal course of business. The California backup withholding provision would apply to payments made after 2009.
Finally the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) could require a payor of income to furnish the name, address, Social Security number, or other taxpayer identification of the recipient of such income for withholding purposes. Currently, a payor is only required to supply the name and address of the payee. ( A.B. 17 and A.B. 18, Laws 2009, Fourth Special Session, applicable as noted above.)
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
(Submitted July 30, 2009) | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 8:47:58 AM | All of them, wait till this hits peoples paychecks. Next year is an election year.
They just couldn't manke more cuts and spend less. Watch the mass exodus from Cali. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 8:58:05 AM | | As far as I'm concerned, Arnie is going to take the heat and the leggies won't, when in fact it's the leggies that took things to the limit and beyond insanity with the IOU's and Arnie had no choice but to sign. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 10:05:13 AM | | Well... Arnie is no saint.... But he isn't the biggest problem we have here... that's for sure. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 10:24:37 AM | I think all these problems raise the question of why these legislators keep getting re-elected. Could it be that the hundreds of thousands of public employees and union members they give other people's money to know which side their bread's buttered on?
The flood of illegal aliens has probably hurt this state more than anything else during the past 25-30 years. They have increased demand on all public services and facilities to the breaking point, while contributing only a small fraction of what's needed to pay for what they use. The U.S. government, by its inexcusable failure to enforce our immigration laws, has given foreign nationals--more than a few of them grifters or outright criminals--continuing access to our wallets.
But a steady supply of the lowest kind of politicians, more than willing to ruin California for their own benefit, has done almost as much harm. When Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian, and Pete Wilson governed this state, not only was its financial health far better, but also its schools, roads, hospitals, and other basic structures were the envy of the whole country. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 10:39:54 AM | That makes a lot of sense Match...
But also, the High Taxes, over Regulation... and the crazy restrictions from Environmentalists has a lot to do with this... Basically the values of the Liberals... or Progressives... It really does give insight to what the whole country can turn into.
Unions are suppose to help workers get a fair paycheck... in reality they like bringing Business to it's knees... and stifle competition... We want to keep the Planet clean and green... But not create things that are not real, in order to go crazy over the environment, creating the lack of being energy self efficient. Just like the current trend in New York... for years California has been driving out business... which takes their jobs with them... due to over regulation and high taxes.
If people can't see the similarity in what has happened to California... what is going on with New York... and what will happen to America... They must either not care... or have blinders on. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 11:21:30 AM | | Even Liberal Democrat Treasurer of CA Bill Lockyer recently told the legislature that they have to STOP spending, they can no longer raise taxes, they are beholden to unions so they are incapable of solving the pension plan problem which will bankrupt the state, AND he told them they better start working with Republicans because they generally know more about govt efficiency and fiscal responsibility. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 12:14:20 PM | JD, I didn't mention environmental restrictions, but you're exactly right. They've had a lot to do with driving up the price of housing in California. I've studied that, and there's a lot of research to support it. Just to cite one study, a professor at UC Berkeley looked at land prices at various distances out from the Bay Area during the years before and after 1970, when environmental laws started to be expanded so much. He found these restrictions did a lot to increase the cost of raw land, which developers were usually able to pass on to buyers as higher housing prices.
And more often than not, laws requiring "open space," habitat protection, minimum lot sizes, etc. have forced development farther and farther out, aggravating the very air pollution, lost productivity, expense of providing public services, social isolation, and so on environmentalists offer as reasons to oppose "urban sprawl." There's a good reason why builders joke that California is "developers' He!!."
BTW, the dirty little secret about environmentalism is the part it's played in racial exclusion, all over the U.S. Middle-class white "liberals," who are the backbone of most environmental groups, have found it's a convenient way to keep minorities in their proper place--literally--by making it harder for them to move to the nicer suburbs. All while salving their consciences that they're doing something good, wholesome, and generally wonderful. "We've got ours--now let's pull up that drawbridge behind us."
I don't blame them for wanting to avoid people who may cost more in public services (e.g. for schools and police) or who may otherwise be undesirable neighbors. What I don't like is that instead of doing it on their own dime--say by paying their communities to buy up development rights--they want to do it on the cheap by getting laws passed. It also doesn't hurt that once they and their friends are set up, alleging environmental reasons to restrict new construction tends to increase the value of their properties. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 5:42:39 PM | | As I mentioned in another thread, add to it the high cost of work comp and other employer tax responsibilities and the ever increasing insanity of building code requirements that change every time we have an earthquake or other disaster, making the owner of Simpson Strong-Tie very very rich, all at the expense of those who believe they are entitled to the American Dream. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/5/2009 6:52:23 PM | 1) High taxes drove businesses out of the state
2) Unsustainable public pension system. Some of these people get over 80% of their salary once they retire EARLY.
3) Illegal Aliens
4) Social Engineering Programs
5) In CA as an S corp I pay $800 a year just because. In Nevada there is no franchise tax or corporate tax. So where do businesses incorporate????
6) We pay the highest teacher salaries in the nation despite a ranking in education of 47 out of 50 states.
7) Politicians are beholden to unions and support them over "The People"
8) General stupidity. Here in San Diego they spent millions of tax dollars buying tickets from the Chargers to guarantee them a sell out of every game.
9) Instead of solving problems they throw money at them ineffectively. That way, they can say they are doing something about poor public education for example by saying they allocated more money to it.
After writing this I have to wonder why I am still here. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/6/2009 10:32:50 PM | | ...and those lottery earnings were supposed to go to the schools, yet many schools have serious maintainece problems like leaky roofs and need paint, not to mention needing modernization...although the handicap requirements are fully funded for how many students out of how many? | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/6/2009 10:55:31 PM | We are paying over $9,000 a student for education and have the highest paid teachers in the nation, yet we rank 47 out of 50 states!
We need a school voucher system to increase competition between private and public schools. That will make things better fast. Right now they have a captive student base.
It is my belief that the administrative overhead is way too high. In addition, I think that they do NOT spend the money on repairs in improvements to the schools BECAUSE they use that to get even more MONEY! IE "We need more money, the school has leaky pipes, no air conditioning, and the kids are suffering. We are under funded!" | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 12:37:22 PM | I've even seen figures of $11,000-plus per student per year. Hundreds of thousands of them, especially in SoCal, are the children of illegal aliens. The only thing that entitles them to a free education here is the Supreme Court's misreading of the 14th Amendment. It was never intended to contribute to a mass violation of U.S. sovereignty by creating "anchor babies." The decision is Plyler v. Doe, and the Court should have overruled it years ago. When someone enters the U.S. illegally and stays here, of course their minor children aren't to blame. But their parents' decision to violate U.S. laws shouldn't obligate U.S. citizens to make good the damage this does these children. That's on *their* heads.
The teachers' unions hate the idea of vouchers, because many of their members couldn't compete in an open market--they'd have to accept less pay, or they might not even keep working. It's other minority kids--particularly blacks--who pay dearly for all this. The so-called liberals who support illegal immigration and oppose vouchers show how much they *really* care about these kids. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 2:37:40 PM | | ^^^^ Thanks Match for that clear and precise post of the truth of the matter! | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 2:39:25 PM | ...And I might add,
We need to replace EVERY member of the California State Assembly, the group primarily responsible for the problem that the state is in...Over $100,000/year for what amounts to be a part time job AND a free car of their choice, courtesy of the California tax payer...?
...And the majority of them have nothing more than a high school education- NO WONDER CALIFORNIA IS BROKE. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 2:51:08 PM | | ...Not to mention that each member of the state legislature has a team of "assistants" doing all of the work for them, while they are 'wined and dined' by the greed of self interest groups. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 4:27:38 PM | | Even the Terminator met his match with how entrenched those crazies are. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 5:29:49 PM | You know, I'm not partisan, but it bewilders me that Arnold is getting blamed for the mess, when it was already a mess when he came in. I don't particularly even like the guy, but it's just dumb partisan politics to try to frame him for problems that he didn't create.
We have a nanny state that has sent the white middle class running for the exits. Sorry, but that's the truth. Something has to give. You can only tax the rich so much. You can only provide free services for huge numbers of people for a certain amount of time, and then the whole thing collapses.
What is Arnold supposed to do? Shit gold?
They Dems won't let him cut anything, while his own party refuses to raise taxes( since the taxes here are the highest in the nation).
This state is fu**ed. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 5:43:14 PM | | I agree with some of what you say, but he hardly ever seemed willing to take a stand against any of it. And many times, he seemed pretty liberal to me--I'm not sure how much he disagreed with turning California into a bankrupt welfare state. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 5:57:52 PM | | Arnold has squandered the conservative mandate he was given. I guess he wanted to please a distant Kennedy relative lol. So he has been absorbed by the system, lost his chance at "Mr Smith Goes to Sacramento" and we get to pin some large amount of this on him...e.g., $5B for stem cell research 3 years ago, anyone able to think of better spend today? | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/7/2009 7:54:24 PM | | Arnie was our best chance to reason with those crazies. Blame him all you want, but once he's gone, "next victim" until we vote the crazies out, which means getting out to vote. | |
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| The California Collapse
Posted: 11/13/2009 7:33:43 AM | Here's the shared sacrifice.
California Legislature tries to block steep cut in pay and perks
The attorney general is asked to determine whether an 18% pay reduction and car allowance cuts are illegal. Capitol managers say a citizens panel that decided the reductions exceeded its authority.
By Patrick McGreevy
November 6, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento - The state Legislature is quietly seeking to block a steep cut in lawmakers' salary and perks.
Executives of the Assembly and Senate have asked the state attorney general to determine whether the scheduled 18% pay reduction and additional 18% cuts to living expenses and car allowances are illegal. The lowered benefits are due to kick in next month, while base pay is set to be slashed from $116,000 to $95,000, starting with lawmakers elected next year.
Senate Secretary Greg Schmidt, who co-signed the letter requesting the legal opinion, said the Legislature's top attorney has said the citizens commission that ordered the reductions lacked the power to cut the per diem and car allowances.
"We want to make sure they are legal actions," Schmidt said. "If the compensation commission thinks the action is OK and the legislative counsel says it's not, we need to go to a third party."
Charles Murray, the Los Angeles businessman who is chairman of the Citizens Compensation Commission, said the panel has a legal opinion from an attorney at UC Hastings College of Law that says the panel acted within its authority.
Murray also cited a narrow legal opinion by the attorney general's office in June that indicated that the panel could not cut pay for sitting legislators but that it appears to have the power to do so for those elected in the future. Murray said the challenge by the Legislature could "backfire" for elected officials at a time when most state employees are being forced to take three unpaid furlough days each month and many taxpayers are suffering.
"I don't think this is the right time to oppose the action of the Citizens Compensation Commission," Murray said.
The challenge was approved by the office of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). A spokeswoman said that a separate state board sets per diem payments.
"We respect the Citizens Compensation Commission, but they have to follow the Constitution," said spokeswoman Shannon Murphy. "Getting legal clarity about what they can truly do under the Constitution is absolutely appropriate, especially when their actions directly conflict with those of the state board that oversees issues involving per diem."
A representative of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said the leader did not approve the challenge before it was filed by Schmidt and Jon Waldie, the chief administrative officer of the Assembly. "It's something they did on their own," said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Steinberg. Schmidt reports to Steinberg and Waldie to Bass.
Barankin said Steinberg was not available for comment but will abide by whatever the attorney general finds.
The letter from Schmidt and Waldie asks Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to rule on whether the commission acted legally when it voted May 20 to impose the cuts. Its members, the letter said, "apparently lacked the authority to make a salary adjustment at that time based on the condition of the state budget." Murray countered that state officials had announced a budget shortfall before the commission took action.
The pair also complained in their letter that a resolution the commission adopted regarding expenses focused on legislators to the exclusion of other elected state officials.
"The fact that the resolution has been tailored in this fashion to single out the Legislature suggests an abuse of discretion on the part of the commission," the two executives wrote.
In its final action, however, the panel did cut expenses for other elected officials.
The letter also contends that "travel and living expenses for members of the Legislature are not addressed" in the section of the state Constitution that gives the commission its responsibilities.
To bolster their argument, they sent a legal opinion from Legislative Counsel Diane F. Boyer Vine that says "the determination of per diem reimbursements for members of the Legislature is not a benefit within the jurisdiction of the commission."
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times | |
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