Rebane's Ruminations
June 2018
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

ARCHIVES


OUR LINKS


YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog

George Rebane

State Senator Ted Gaines reports in the 9jun18 Union‘New bill slaps Californians with tax on services’ – of a piece of surreptitious legislation (SB993) quietly wending through Sacramento that will install yet one more layer of taxes that the people must add to the tribute that they already submit to succor the Sacramento Leviathan.  This new 3% tax on services will affect people directly and indirectly in more ways than we can count.

“Next time you visit a dry cleaner, hair stylist, manicurist, mechanic or any of the other countless services that we use day after day, week after week, you'll pay a new and additional three-percent tax for the exact same service. That's the last thing financially-stretched Californians need in this already unaffordable state. And history is clear that the three-percent tax will only creep up over time. … The damage wouldn't stop there. Small businesses contract out myriad tasks so they can focus on their core money making activity. They pay for computer services, payroll, janitorial, bookkeeping, legal services and more. Under this bill, they will be paying a premium for those services.”

The tax will give rise to a whole new bureaucracy charged with its administration that itself will cost over $600M annually, and employ a whole new tranche of government workers (aka parasites) whose benefit and retirement packages will require more millions taken into perpetuity from the shrinking corps of the state’s taxpayers.  In short, this will be another cancer upon the horde of cancers already afflicting the state’s fisc, and it will “further damage California’s faltering economic competitiveness and corrode our long-term financial health.”

We the people used to pay taxes for acknowledged needed services that were best provided by the collective, i.e. government.  Today new taxes are constantly added and existing ones are redirected for the sole purpose of sustaining and growing government (the employer of last resort).  When governments start exacting tribute from the people with impunity and for such clearly self-serving purposes, it has always signaled the onset of a rapidly evolving autocracy toward eventual tyranny.

Addendum:  As we have reported, California’s loss of productive middle-class taxpayers continues apace.  And the state is fast on the track to follow other high-tax socialist enclaves like Vermont (home of Bernie the communist) which has now initiated a $10K ‘Vermont relocation grant’ in its desperate attempt to replace its outflow of taxpayers by attracting new workers who can telecommute from the Green Mountain State (here).  Upon a moment’s reflection, it is clear that the $10K reward for moving there will only be taken by the innumerates who cannot calculate the horribly negative internal rate of return that this investment will have on their financial health.  Exit question – do companies really allow such double dummies to work from home?

Posted in , , ,

18 responses to “Kalifornia’s new service tax”

  1. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Tax on services will be a killer to po folk and the Mom and Pop stores. Now they want to tax drinking water. If we don’t tax food, an essential of life, why tax drinking water? A person can survive two to three weeks without food, but only 3 days without water.
    “Brown then proclaimed himself a “born-again tax cutter,” but examples of when he actually reduced taxes are rather hard to find. In 1992, in the last of this three failed presidential runs, Brown advanced a flat tax of 13 percent, with a similar value-added levy on business and deductions only for mortgage interest, rent, and charitable contributions. The plan went nowhere and Brown struck out as a presidential candidate.
    In his second go-round as governor, Brown proved he was a born-again tax hiker. Embattled Californians bear the nation’s highest income taxes, with a top rate of 13.3 percent, and the nation’s highest base sales-tax rate at 7.25 percent. Brown has also imposed a $5.2 billion gas tax and calls those who complain “freeloaders.” It’s a tough act to follow but Brown is up to the task with his tax on drinking water.”
    http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/why-californias-drinking-water-tax-could-be-last-straw-californians
    Companion piece:
    http://dailycaller.com/2018/06/04/jerry-brown-drinking-water-tax-california/

    Like

  2. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    I recall a city on the bluff overlooking the ocean tried a “view tax”. They got their ass handed to them from even the liberals!

    Like

  3. rl crabb Avatar

    It’s like I’ve always said, Californians love to be taxed. When Sacramento says, “We need more taxes!” The people say, “How high, sir?”

    Like

  4. George Rebane Avatar

    rlc 1201pm – And who, pray, are these compliant California supplicants who ask “How high, sir?”

    Like

  5. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    rlc@12:01PM “It’s like I’ve always said, Californians love to be taxed.
    It’s the nature of the tax that’s the brilliant part. I probably mentioned before that Victor Davis Hanson nailed (I think) the future of California taxation as being various forms of user tax.
    It’s super-cool in a few ways.
    . As usual with most taxes, you can redirect money from disfavored groups to favored groups.
    . You can always make a logical case for it. After all, what’s more reasonable than paying an ‘Air Pollution Trash Disposal Fee’ to the state when you pay Waste Management? Of course, the $$$$ are essentially going into a general fund.
    . These kinds of fees hit the working and middle classes. There isn’t a progressive tax schedule (like the income tax) so rich people don’t really care. Plus the burgeoning illegal alien class and poor people generally typically don’t have to pay it with their own money.
    . Anyone who is seriously looking to the state for income (.gov retirees, state employees and the like) will be four square for the idea in order to shore up their finances.
    . If Trump is against taxes, taxes must be good.
    It’s a win-win situation, especially if you are trying to build a Northern American version of Brazil.

    Like

  6. rl crabb Avatar

    GR 1:48PM – The voters, obviously.

    Like

  7. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Good answer, Mr. Crabb. My knee jerk response would have been “the tax payers”. but your answer is the correct one. Obliviously. The voters…the voters who want the tax payers to pay for the ride, aka, “the other dude will pay”.
    Now, I am in no uncertain terms nearly as optimistic as Mike Reagen, concerning the November election, but there are some quotes in his writing that address the topic at hand, Kalifornia.
    “If you like $5-a-gallon gas, if you like sanctuary cities, if you like illegals pouring across the border, if you want four more years of the progressive tax-and-spend policies that have destroyed what used to be known as ‘The great state of California,’ vote Gavin Newsom. You’ll be sorry.”
    https://patriotpost.us/opinion/56438-a-chance-to-save-california
    Well, to be fair Michael, not all will be sorry. Just those humping it everyday to squeak by.
    .

    Like

  8. George Rebane Avatar

    We all must remember that “the voters” are not one homogeneous class of idiots. Unfortunately, in California the idiots make up the majority of voters.

    Like

  9. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Re: Vermont Relocation Grant
    In a cruel twist of fate, the good citizens of the Green Mountain State has the highest per capita rate of consuming vinegar in the United States. To add to their misery, they also have the highest life expectancy. Alas, is their no end to the misery?

    Like

  10. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    GeorgeR@6:19PM
    They don’t even have to be idiots. I believe that fees have a lower legislative hurdle than taxes, but the best part about some taxes/fees is that they can be directed at a minority.
    If some new way to flim flam money from the population only hits a small group, the rest of the folks either won’t care or are in favor of the idea. You merely need to produce a continuous stream of money-extraction legislation that a majority is immune to. No doubt this idea has been expressed in some sort of game theory.

    Like

  11. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    GeorgeR: “The tax will give rise to a whole new bureaucracy charged with its administration that itself will cost over $600M annually, ”
    I don’t see the problem. All the new tax has to do is to raise $600M/year and you break even. Just look at it as a jobs program giving thousands of people the opportunity to learn arcane and somewhat arbitrary rules. It’s for The Children after all.

    Like

  12. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    M
    Thanks. Good map. At first glance I see that states that do not levy state personal income tax have dots, such as TX, FL, WA. Makes sense that states with no sales tax do not have dots either. Man, living in the Northeast must suck, . No wonder they call them high tax states.
    Here is a more in-depth graph of user fees…er….service taxes for your consideration.
    https://www.facebook.com/lastamericapatriots/photos/a.235087906641439.1073741826.235086849974878/996213890528833/?type=3&theater
    ,,,here ya go ya bunch of whiney geezers

    Like

  13. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    M@9:11AM
    There’s not a lot of knowledge in your link. After all,
    “Remember that within each category of services, states can still have drastically different regulations. For instance, both Florida and Iowa are marked as taxing “business services,” even though Iowa taxes a wide range of these services and Florida only taxes security and detective services.”
    A service tax strikes me as ridiculous. There already is such a thing, it’s called ‘income tax’.
    For that matter, why not just get rid of all California taxes and merely raise 100% of state money from property and income tax? One reason might be that the total hit would become more obvious to everyone.

    Like

  14. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Man, seems everybody is going after personal grooming services since the ACA taxed Botox and tanning booths…and the sale of each real estate transaction. And now they are taking beauty out of Beauty Contests and whinning about Affordable Housing. Go figure.

    Like

  15. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    M | 10 June 2018 at 09:11 AM
    So you will pay sales tax on your masseuse who comes to massage your prostate? Too bad.

    Like

  16. George Rebane Avatar

    I take it our leftwing friends like Mr M attempt to soothe our pain at yet another new tax in a state of super-high taxes by citing that the same umbrage is already being exercised in other states. Would they also use such argument to calm us when our crime rates go up by citing states with already still higher rates of crime?

    Like

  17. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    GR@12:00PM
    You know, I wonder if there isn’t a named logical fallacy for that kind of comparison?

    Like

Leave a comment