California Tax Proposals

[Ron61]

I just read a whole page article in the paper today about California's budget woes and proposed solutions. I do not know if this is true as I have about the same amount of faith in what our local paper prints as I do in what CNN reports.
But here are a few of the proposed new taxes. 8¢ on ITunes downloads. 25 cents on every grocery bag. $1.80 on six packs of beer. 25 per cent on pornography, strip shows and other adult entertainment. Surcharges for gas guzzlers. Close Sloophole available to yacht owners. Eliminate tax break for criminals.
Now the real kicker, if this paper is to be believed. All of these proposals have been shot down before they even got started for some of the most ridiculous reasons I have ever heard. Some, such as the gas guzzler should be defined more as the way it is stated, any car, no matter the age would fall under that if it didn't get over 15MPG. Pornography is a major industry and any taxes would cost a lot of jobs. A coalition of porn stars, strippers, and others in adult entertainment roamed the halls of the capitol recently to lobby against any taxes on them. They won't eliminate the mortgage deduction on vacation homes at more than $1 million because that would discourage the wealthy from buying property in California. And it goes on and on with this type of stuff while the state is now projecting that the deficit will be closer to $20 billion than the $10/$15 billion earlier stated.
As I said there is much more but I don't know how much of it is fact and how much is getting some publicity. I do know the state and counties, and cities are really hurting. Every time Redding raises the taxes on businesses they drive our a few more of the older and small ones and now they have only the larger ones left and are afraid to mess with them.

Ron