What is wrong with California?

[YOhio]

Huntington Beach High School is known as the Oilers. You wouldn't know why today, but this is what it looked like back in the 20's when Standard Oil dominated the landscape. Surf City, U.S.A. is much more appealing.

It's sad when dreams like this:



Lead to realities like this:

[LA Ute]

Makes sense. I now understand why the rest of the country has a gut ache.

That's it. No more almonds for you guys. [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond"]Almond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame].

In the United States, [almond] production is concentrated in California, with almonds being California's third leading agricultural product and its top agricultural export in 2008 and 100% of the U.S. commercial supply. The United States is the dominant supplier of almonds. In 2011, the country exported about 637,000 metric tons, valued at US$2.8 billion.

Just one of the many unappreciated wonders of The Golden State.

[il Padrino Ute]

That's it. No more almonds for you guys. Almond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



Just one of the many unappreciated wonders of The Golden State.

That's okay. I'll just smuggle almonds in from Sicily and get rich doing it.

[Uncle Ted]

California now encouraging their entrepreneurs and investors to go elsewhere, retroactively back to 2008...

As a way of encouraging entrepreneurs and investors to start companies in California, the state has long offered a tax deduction for those who start, invest in, and eventually sell companies.

This tax deduction allowed entrepreneurs and angels to exclude 50% of any gain on the sale of "Qualified Small Business" stock.

[...]

But now the state has apparently decided that it no longer needs to encourage entrepreneurs to start and keep their companies in California.
So it is eliminating the tax deduction.

Far more startling, the state is eliminating the deduction retroactively--going all the back to 2008.

In other words, anyone who sold their California company in the past 5 years and took advantage of the tax deduction is now going to have to pay the tax.

With interest!
[...]

[Jeff Lebowski]

California now encouraging their entrepreneurs and investors to go elsewhere, retroactively back to 2008...

Unreal. Is that legal?

[Uncle Ted]

Unreal. Is that legal?

I don't believe so...

"No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

but all the liberal judges in California may rule otherwise.

[Joe Public]

Unreal. Is that legal?

It's a pretty aggressive move by the Franchise Tax Board, but they have a decent leg to stand on. The whole thing started when some guy was bent that he was denied the deduction because he didn't have enough California assets and payroll to qualify. He sued, claiming it was against the Commerce Clause for the state to discriminate against out-of-staters. The appeals court agreed with the argument, but that invalidated the statue ab initio. Be careful what you ask for, I guess.

[Uncle Ted]

It's a pretty aggressive move by the Franchise Tax Board, but they have a decent leg to stand on. The whole thing started when some guy was bent that he was denied the deduction because he didn't have enough California assets and payroll to qualify. He sued, claiming it was against the Commerce Clause for the state to discriminate against out-of-staters. The appeals court agreed with the argument, but that invalidated the statue ab initio. Be careful what you ask for, I guess.

So I wonder if California is counting on this revenue as part of their "balanced" budget (retroactively).

[Uncle Ted]

With higher taxes, California loses jobs...

California voters approved a $50 billion tax hike in November, bestowing the highest marginal income tax rate in the nation on California taxpayers — 13.3 percent.

Now professional golfer Phil Mickelson is thinking of leaving the state. He’s fortunate. He can practice his chosen profession in any region where snow doesn’t cover the ground for too long, and if he moves to Texas or Florida, his state income tax will drop to zero.

Mickelson won’t be the first pro golfer to leave California. Tiger Woods, who used to live in my old Orange County legislative district, moved to Florida in 1996.

[...]

But what about the average Californians hit by the recent sales tax, income tax and vehicle tax boosts? How are they faring?

California’s official unemployment rate, 9.8 percent, is the third highest in the nation. In comparison, Texas’ official rate stands at 6.1 percent. For 72 consecutive months, the Lone Star State’s unemployment rate has been below the national average.

California Gov. Jerry Brown gets understandably defensive about California’s jobs picture. In a recent radio interview, Brown sought to downplay Texas’ employment success by claiming that “ten or eleven” percent of all Texas workers earn at or below the minimum wage. This stale meme, first offered by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, is false. Krugman himself admitted as much in a correction issued about a week after he wrote a column attacking Texas.

Once Texas’ much lower cost-of-living is accounted for, the picture becomes even clearer. California has the third-highest cost-of-living in the nation, after Hawaii and New York. The cost-of-living is 42 percent higher in California than it is in Texas, most of that due to hyper-restrictive land use policies and fees that artificially drive up California’s housing costs. This means California’s hourly minimum wage of $8.00 effectively buys $6.06 of goods and services while Texas’ lower minimum wage of $7.25 can buy $8.04 of goods and services.

[...]

U-Haul offers a free-market measure of the relative success of state public policies. Renting a 20-foot moving van from Altadena, California to Austin, Texas costs $1,768. Going from Texas to California costs $656. U-Haul has to pay people to “dead head” empty trucks from Texas back to California to meet demand. In fact, some two million more Americans left California in the past 10 years than moved into the state. That’s a lot of empty-moving-van trips.

[...]

Here’s where things get really interesting.

Starting with the end of the recession in June 2009, there were 19 months where California had higher taxes followed by 23 months of lower taxes. Then, last December, small business owners’ taxes spiked back up. The employment data for this period speaks volumes. During the low-tax months, the number of jobs in California increased by 2.7 percent, the number of jobs in Texas increased by 4.3 percent and the number of jobs in the U.S. as a whole, minus the two biggest states, increased by 2.4 percent. So California did pretty well, slightly outpacing the national average.

But, during the 20 months of higher taxes, California lost about 1.1 percent of its jobs while Texas, which held the line on spending instead of increasing taxes, added 1.2 percent more jobs while the other 48 states lost 0.4 percent of their jobs

So after the recession’s official end, California lost jobs at almost triple the pace of the rest of the nation when it had higher taxes but it gained jobs faster than the national average during the two years when its taxes were lower.

[...]

http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/23/ph...r-californian/

And Texas benefits.

[LA Ute]

Am I the only one getting a little tired of the glee being expressed here about what is a tragic situation for millions of good people who cannot be blamed for what is going on here?

[Donuthole]

Am I the only one getting a little tired of the glee being expressed here about what is a tragic situation for millions of good people who cannot be blamed for what is going on here?

Signs point to yes.

[All-American]

Am I the only one getting a little tired of the glee being expressed here about what is a tragic situation for millions of good people who cannot be blamed for what is going on here?

I think the whole point is that the suckers are getting what they asked for.

[byu71]

Am I the only one getting a little tired of the glee being expressed here about what is a tragic situation for millions of good people who cannot be blamed for what is going on here?

I have a lot of friends who live in California. I feel for them because none of them vote for a Democrat. I have a hard time feeling bad for those who have elected the people who represent them.

[LA Ute]

Signs point to yes.

Har-har.

I think the whole point is that the suckers are getting what they asked for.

Oh, please. There are 30 million people here. Millions of them did not ask for any of what is going on, either because they voted and fought against it, are too young to vote, or are otherwise not part of it. That increases the grounds for outrage on their behalf, not reasons to laugh or gloat. I just think the schadenfreude has pretty much worn thin, or should have.

In other words, it isn't funny if you've made your life and your family's life here.

[filsdepac]

With higher taxes, California loses jobs...



http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/23/ph...r-californian/

And Texas benefits.

I don't get the golfer reference, don't they pay taxes in the states where the tournaments are held?