Like the villain in a cheesy hostage movie, Gov. Jerry Brown took to the stage last week to deliver his annual budget. His ransom demand to Californians was simple: Vote for more in taxes or I’ll cut $5 billion from education.
For the Chinese, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. For beleaguered California taxpayers this may be the Year of the Billionaire. Of the half dozen or so potential November ballot measures designed to raise taxes, nearly half are actively sponsored by billionaires.
As our planet completes another trip around the sun, we at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association join in the tradition of taking stock of what has been accomplished during the year just ending and assess what challenges we face in the coming year.
The tax-and-spend Sacramento insiders who hunger for more taxpayer cash are having to secure their drool bibs after the release of a poll claiming broad public support for Jerry Brown’s proposed tax hikes.
Near the end of the classic 1978 movie “Animal House” we see Kevin Bacon, wearing his ROTC uniform, wildly flailing his arms and screeching, “Remain calm, all is well,” as panicking parade attendees run about in every direction and back again in total confusion.
Ask any of the politicians in Sacramento if they believe in government transparency, full disclosure of their official actions and the open and honest operation of state functions, and they will, to a man and woman, answer with a resounding, “yes!” Yeah, right.
The California economy remains on life support. The official unemployment rate, second lowest only to Nevada, is at 11.7 percent. But even this dismal number understates the problem for real people.
The 2011 Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Legislative Report Card is out and, from the perspective of citizen taxpayers and homeowners, the grades of the majority of legislators are so poor that, if they were school children, they’d be grounded.
Imagine you see an ad in the newspaper for a very fast, shiny new sports car at a low, low price. Tempted, you grab your wallet and rush to the dealership where you agree to buy this dream car.
Halloween is almost here and like a hoard of ravenous zombies, the politicians, the bureaucrats and government employee union bosses shamble along groaning “more, more” — more taxpayer dollars, that is.
It’s scary season again, and not because of the little monsters who will appear at our doors on Halloween. It’s those property tax bills that are showing up in mail boxes across the state.
Notwithstanding the fact that the government employee unions were the biggest financial backers of Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial race against Meg Whitman, he repeatedly assured us that he would govern independently.
