MR Mister Loc: Washington DC

California’s 40 million residents depend on less than 1 percent of the state’s taxpayers to pay nearly half of the state income tax, which for California’s highest tier of earners tops out at the nation’s highest rate of 13.3 percent.

In other words, California cannot afford to lose even a few thousand of its wealthiest individual taxpayers. But a new federal tax law now caps deductions for state and local taxes at $10,000—a radical change that promises to cost many high-earning taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

If even a few thousand of the state’s 1 percent flee to nearby no-tax states such as Nevada or Texas, California could face a devastating shortfall in annual income.

During the 2011-16 California drought, politicians and experts claimed that g****l w*****g had permanently altered the climate, and that snow and rain would become increasingly rare in California. As a result, long-planned low-elevation reservoirs, designed to store water during exceptionally wet years, were considered all but useless and thus were never built.

Then, in 2016 and 2017, California received record snow and rainfall—and the windfall of millions of acre-feet of runoff was mostly let out to sea. Nothing since has been learned.

California has again been experiencing rain and cold that could approach seasonal records. The state has been soaked by some 18 trillion gallons of rain in February alone. With still no effort to expand California’s water storage capacity, millions of acre-feet of runoff are once again cascading out to sea (and may be sorely missed next year).

The inability to build reservoirs is especially tragic given that the state’s high-speed rail project has gobbled up more than $5 billion in funds without a single foot of track laid. The total cost soared from an original $40 billion promise to a projected $77 billion.

To his credit, newly elected Gov. Gavin Newsom, fearing a budget catastrophe, canceled the statewide project while allowing a few miles of the quarter-built Central Valley “track to nowhere” to be finished.

For years, high-speed rail has drained the state budget of t***sportation funds that might have easily updated nightmarish stretches of the Central Valley’s Highway 99, or ensured that the nearby ossified Amtrak line became a modern two-track line.

California politicians vie with each other to prove their open-borders bona fides in an effort to appeal to the estimated 27 percent of Californians who were not born in the United States.

But the health, educational, and legal costs associated with massive i*****l i*********n are squeezing the budget. About a third of the California budget goes to the state’s Medicare program, Medi-Cal. Half the state’s births are funded by Medi-Cal, and in nearly a third of those state-funded births, the mother is an i*****l i*******t.

California is facing a perfect storm of homelessness. Its labyrinth of zoning and building regulations discourages low-cost housing. Its generous welfare benefits, nonenforcement of vagrancy and public health laws, and moderate climate draw in the homeless.

Nearly one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients live in the state, and nearly 1 in 5 live below the poverty line.

The result is that tens of thousands of people live on the streets and sidewalks of the state’s major cities, where primeval diseases such as typhus have reappeared.

California’s progressive government seems clueless how to deal with these issues, given that solutions such as low-cost housing and strict enforcement of health codes are seen as either too expensive or politically incorrect.

In sum, California has no margin for error.

Spiraling entitlements, unwieldy pension costs, money wasted on high-speed rail, inadequate water storage, and delivery, and lax immigration policies were formerly tolerable only because about 150,000 Californians paid huge but federally deductible state income taxes.

No more. Californians may have once derided the state’s 1 percent as selfish rich people. Now, they are praying that these heavily burdened taxpayers stay put and are willing to pay far more than what they had paid before.

That is the only way California can continue to spend money on projects that have not led to safe roads, plentiful water, good schools, and safe streets.

A California reckoning is on the horizon, and it may not be pretty.

Phantom one

Sad indeed and I feel sorry for the ones that did not v**e for the i***ts in the Cal statehouse, but not for the ones that keep putting them there. As far as I know, most of the rich bigwigs out there v**ed Demoncrat, so pay up boys and girls, keep the politicians happy!

maximus Loc: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Is it the ocean that makes so many Californians crazy? Or is it that they are at the extreme west, and therefore at the "back" of the class. Surely there is some ailment that takes away their common sense!

Phantom one

Breathing too much salt air. Probably infecting wh**ever brain they have left.

crazylibertarian Loc: Florida by way of New York & Rhode Island

When collectivist societies collapse it never is pretty. Liberals/ progressives/socialists/etc. are snake oil saleman. They care not a whit for the consequences and, actually, may look forward to them so they can blame it on conservatives, counter-revolutionaries. Look at the progressives on OPP. They pile their invectives on conservatives.

The internal contradictions of their failed New Deal, Great Society programs are on the verge of bankrupting the country. Combine those unfunded liabilities with pensions, etc, and the loss of income from potential productive workers that have had their lives snuffed out through a******ns and you have a recipe for disaster but with their adeptness they will blame it on the Right.

woodguru

Are any of you aware that this was a GOP poison pill in the tax cut s**m, to penalize blue states? Part of the idiocy of the tax cuts is the changes that takes write offs off the table

tommsteyer

some of us have brains. But you have an entire lower class wedge of v**ers who think California is still in the 1960's.

Traffic is horrible your ride is your signature hodgepodge little houses cost over a million dollars. Half the people that live in this state cannot afford to live here and are sunk in debt for what they consider basic costs of living.

I would guess about 20 per cent of Southern Californians don't work and live off the parental teat. I would guess another 20% are seniors living above their budget and diving into debt to pay medical and housing costs.

Then there is the 20 per cent that are principally i*****l i*******ts working like donkeys on 3 jobs to support 7 person families. One person in the entire household has a social security number and four others live undocumented to dodge taxes.

The penultimate 20 per cent are living on disability unemployment or hand to mouth under the table stuff. They scoop the low h*****g fruit of contract and freelance work, allowing employers to cease offering salaried positions.

The ppl that support this are 20 % that work middle or upper class that have gorgeous lifestyles or the rich whose taxes keep this bloated pinata flying. The entertainment and tourism economies keep dollars flowing.

But the party will end if the overtaxed rich stampede for offshore banking.concessions of tropical climes. The elites drive these markets for big dollar houses and cars and planes and trains.

Hi speed trains to ....where? Who could afford these trains and where would anyone need to get there that fast? Only the elites.

It took years for people to afford the overland rail lines. I remember many of the working poor coming to grips with the cost of daily travel at these rates.

But the money thrown at the hi speed trains could have been used to discount fares for light rail for ppl living on the borderlines.

The money spent on bus fare for a week, @$17.00, for working women could bridge the gap at the grocery store. Or at the shoe store. Or at the 99-cents only store for a weekend's worth of food to feed a fatherless family of five six seven eight.


California is broke and getting more broke. Worse every day, for the already poor, worse for them every day the border vomits more moochers.

More people who will do their jobs cheaper. About 7,000 ppl a day willing to do your job for half the cost.

Sicilianthing

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Trump has failed to liberate California
Trump has failed to send in the Fed investigators and regulators
Trump has failed to build the wall
Trump has failed to begin Mass Roundups and Mass Deportations
Trump’s inactions are a direct reflection of the ongoing destruction of our communities, demographics and Body Politic.

You v**ed with all the rest for Trump to take office, Crack Heads, Drain the Swamp, Make arrests, Expose the Perpetrators like those who put Nusem in office (the 4 California Crime families) and more from D.C.

April Fools Approaches, Tick Tock Mr. Trumpy !

Renegade State: The Four Families of California and the Private Company that controls the Internet
6minutes:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ofLvExAbxWs

Carol Kelly

You should stop and listen to yourself.

Carol Kelly

Sometimes I am shocked at your newfound attitude and this is one of those times.

Sicilianthing

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Do not be shocked, we are 2years in and that was the timeline of patience millions of us Patriots gave Trump to Drain the swamp and arrest at least one of the Criminals.

April Fools approaches... Tick Tock Mr. Trumpy.

teabag09

Shut up with your BS. This all began and festered way before the President was even in the picture. He has attempted every thing on your list and has been thwarted at every step by both the left and the right. WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU EXPECT ONE MAN TO ACCOMPLISH BY HIMSELF??? Mike

Sicilianthing

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I understand your point but that no longer cuts it.

In fact his Emergency order he just did last month isn’t really an Emergency order.

The Real Tools provided by the founders are still there in his arsenal and he fails to use them against a Criminal Enterprise masquerading as your Gov’t you mention above.

Why can’t you see that ?

teabag09

I understand what you are saying and was perplexed too. I think there is much going on behind the scenes that require a lot of finesse so as to not tip the hand and let the enemy board up. As you've said, 04/01/2019 is your action day. I'll stand up with you in my area as will many I know but at the same time get off the President's ass. I don't believe any man has worked harder for our Country than President Trump in the face of so much conflict from every side but never tires in his convictions. Mike

Sicilianthing

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I agree yes very perplexing.
It’s one of my duties to point out the unfolding reality too though, sorry.

I wish things were better but the conditions are worsening.