I think you’re on the right track about taxes vod-vil, but I’m not sure I understand your comments. Arnold was elected governor as a republican. Brown is slashing state budgets, and is proving to be a fiscally conservative democrat. Democrats actually don’t “run California”, and anything budget, fiscal or tax-related requires a 2/3 super-majority in state government, which doesn’t happen because of the partisanship. As for Wall Street, the state has no jurisdiction over NYC investment bank securities transactions or the offshore tax havens they use to dodge taxes.

California government — OUR state, OUR government — is going to referendum over tax *extensions*, in large part because tax receipts at the state level have decreased dramatically because of the recession. Much of the tax money goes towards paying for things that are very reasonable, like operating public schools or keeping firemen and policemen on the job.

Where I think you might have a point — tax policy here in California, Prop 13 included, is dysfunctional. It has led to a situation where the state is overly dependent on sales tax and capital gains sources, and as a result the swings in tax receipts (up in a good economy, down in a bad economy) are overly cyclical, not stable, not counter-cyclical, which makes it difficult to fund state operations, particularly in down times, and to make matters worse, the state’s finances end up just exacerbating the severity of the recession.

That’s the economics. Politicians could do the right thing and reform the state tax code, but the environment is hyper-partisan right now. Get educated. Learn about the issues. Think for yourself. Don’t parrot party talking points. These tax policy issues matter in very real-world ways.