Voters Approve Over $3.0 Billion Per Year in New Local Taxes

By Edward Ring
02/02/2023
When state ballot initiatives propose new taxes, it’s big news. But while every election features a handful of state tax and bond proposals that get statewide attention, additional hundreds of local state and bond proposals fly under the radar.  Fortunately, after each election cycle and once all the votes are certified – something that in...

TAGS: California tax increases, California taxes, tax increases, taxes

Curbing Corporate Welfare and Government Funded Political Campaigns

By Edward Ring
03/27/2019
Should the government spend money to benefit private companies? Should the government spend money to influence voters? In California, they do this all the time. There are laws specifically written to prevent this, but they are undermined by aggressive exploitation of loopholes combined with lax enforcement. And to be fair, genuine ambiguity often makes it...

TAGS: corporate welfare, cronyism, Government, Labor, subsidies, taxes

How to Reduce the California State Budget by $40 Billion

By Edward Ring
12/28/2017
As of a few days ago, high-wage earners have a new reason to leave California: their state income taxes are no longer deductible on their federal income tax returns. Can California’s union-controlled state legislature adapt? Can they lower the top marginal tax rates to keep wealthy people from leaving California? The short answer is, no, they cannot. They cannot conceive of the possibility that California's current economic success is not because of their confiscatory policies, but in spite of them.

TAGS: California state budget, taxes

Transportation Tax Hikes an Insult to Taxpayers

By Jon Coupal
04/03/2017
It’s easy to spend money when it’s not your own. That’s the case with the proposed massive tax hikes on California drivers announced Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown. The $5.2 billion in taxes imposed annually are aimed squarely at the middle class — citizens who see their cars not as a luxury but as a...

TAGS: roads and highways, taxes

Brown’s New Transportation Taxes Will Hurt Working-Class Commuters Most

By Marc Joffe
03/30/2017
On March 29, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced a 10-year $52.4 billion transportation plan that will boost the cost of living dramatically for working-class commuters. Transportation projects in the plan, now part of Senate Bill 1, will be funded by additional vehicle registration fees and a 12-cent per gallon increase in fuel taxes. While the registration fees...

TAGS: California infrastructure, roads and highways, taxes

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Universal Housing Affordability

Prepared by Golden Together, a Movement to Restore the California Dream Lead Author, Edward Ring, California Policy Center Author Steve Hilton, Founder of Golden Together Published April 4, 2024.   

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