As we debate whether high CA income taxes do or do not explain the current net outflow of Californians to other states, let’s keep the bigger picture in mind.
What we conservatives resent more is that our high taxes don’t buy us much. We have about the worst education results in the nation–generally tied with Mississippi or Louisiana on performance tests and graduation rates–yet we have the highest paid teachers in the nation. Our prison costs per prisoner per year are twice as high as Texas and three times as high as Montana. Yet Texas has a far lower recidivism rate. In short, taxpayers don’t get much for their money in this state.
Those high taxes in turn push up the cost of living here. Businesses HAVE to charge us more here in order to pay their heavily taxed workers more and deal with the regulations, 50% higher utility rates, and business taxes.
One would think that with all this big spending and liberal policies we would be helping the poor. Yet days ago a new Census Bureau study showed CA to have the biggest divergence between poor and rich when cost of living is included.
Some earler posts claim that CA’s high cost of living is a bigger factor in prompting the move-outs than taxes. My point here is that the high taxes and what little we get from them drive up our cost of living, thus providing another motivation to move.
