California Can't Tax It's Way Out Of A Deficit

A few years ago, Don "Do Nothing" Sundquist brought forward a bill imposing a sate wide income tax, promising that the sales tax would be eliminated. People went ballistic, and for a good reason.

Then later, the report was "Well, if we do the income tax, we can't eliminate the sales tax, but we'll reduce it from 9.75% to 6%. People went even more ballistic.

The sign that forever sticks out in my mind is one that basically said almost every state with a state income tax still had a budget deficit, even though it was supposed to "fix the problem."

No state sticks out in my mind more than California. The epitome of "You can't tax your way out of it."

California has some of the highest tax rates in the country with a 9.3% marginal tax rate on anyone making over $45,000, and a 7.25% (which can be up to 9.25% in some places) sales tax. OH! And the state has not had any money in the bank for the past 17 months. So much for taxes being the answer.

Could that be the reason people are leaving California for other, lower tax, states by the hundreds of thousands?