California’s Liberal Tax Utopias Cancel Out

California Route 66 (Chuck Coker / Flickr / CC)
Chuck Coker / Flickr / CC

Politicians–and liberals–live to provide people with a world where everyone and everything “wins.” Whether it’s water, the environment, or any number of other ills facing our, state the answer to every question is shared sacrifice and more money…your money, to be precise.

In California, the pursuit of fairness has become something of a science for liberals, with the ends justifying the “means” by which outcomes are judged. In recent times, the most emotionally justifiable phrase one can utter in pursuit of equality has been, “we must save the planet for our children.” The difficulty with such pursuits is the role unintended consequences play with their efforts–but fear not: little attention is paid to these factors, since “goals” are well-intended.

One example is the effort by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, who recently called for “a dollar a week” increase in California’s vehicle license fee to address $59 billion worth of deferred road maintenance. It sounds like such a worthy goal to help California’s middle class get stronger and kick start a moribund economy. Like the almond industry advertisement that calls for “…just a can a week, it’s all we ask.” What Speaker Atkins fails to recognize is her meager $52–per-year tax hits the pocketbooks of the very people she intends to make “strong.”

At the same time, Senator Kevin De Leon, President Pro Tem of California’s Senate, introduced SB 350 as part of the California Climate Leadership Package, which calls for the reduction of fossil fuel consumption by 50% by 2030 (i.e. 15 years from now).

Should Senator De Leon’s bill be signed into law by our High-Speed Showers & Trains Governor, it would mean that California’s fuel tax revenue would drop from roughly $5.5 billion (the last figures available from the Board of Equalization) to just over $2.75 billion. These are also, in part, the funds that are targeted at maintaining our roads and highways.

So while the Speaker wants more money to address badly needed highway maintenance, the President Pro Tem is calling for a 50% reduction in revenue for the same purposes.

In a story written by Thomas C. Frohlich entitled “States Where the Middle Class Is Dying,” middle class incomes in California were shown to be declining by the largest percentage in the country.

California is once again #1 in yet another category…the State Where the Middle Class Is Dying Fastest.

More interesting is a statement in the article by Mr. Joe Valenti, director of asset building at the Center for American Progress–hardly a conservative think tank–pointing out that money in the control of those who make it will create more spending than the same dollars in the hands of high income households.

For the sake of the planet, children and the middle class of California will someone put these two people in the same room? It would benefit all Californians, if they talk it out and leave our wallets alone…they’re killing the golden goose in the Golden State.

But then it’s for a good cause.

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