UR you are taking a microscopic view while mine is more macro in nature. I take the aggregate taxation policy into account not just the property tax issue because I believe they are intertwined.
I believe that the aggregate of the taxation policy for California is one that should be a focus. That is, if you are a homeowner and a wage earner in California your total taxation is pretty damn hefty.
I think that those who believe that increasing taxes (WHATEVER THEY ARE, property, income, sales) I don’t care you choose it, for a given entity, be it state, local, federal, should be done with some BENEFIT for the taxpayer.
So if you want to raise my state taxes, all I ask is that you show me a benefit. Show me you can balance a budget for a year or two with CURRENT revenues. If that can be done then fantastic, go ahead and increase my taxes after that and show me my benefit.
The big problem here is an assumption by you and any other tax increase advocate. Your assumption is that by raising my taxes our school scores will improve or state services will improve. However we have just HAD AN INCREASE in income taxes and NEITHER happened. In fact, we are continuing to deteriorate.
LOGIC follows that it is perfectly reasonable for me to assume that another increase in any state related tax will NOT improve my life, or the schools, or any service that my family enjoys. It is NOT UNREASONABLE to ask that the state govt clean the ledger, balance the budget with what they have, then if they want to add services in a well defined and orderly manner, and can do that with raising taxes but STAYING WITHIN BUDGET then I am okay with it.
However to just agree that implicitly raising more more revenue and more revenue for the state legislature without them showing any improvement in budget keeping is completely ridiculous. Its like going to the doctor and saying ouch my head hurts and the doctor asks you why you keep bumping it against the wall?
