The political consultants in Sacramento get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to make smart decisions for their clients. So whose dumb idea was it for the huge increase in the California car tax to go into effect on the very same day as the May 19 special election that will ask voters to approve crucial parts of the state budget package?
As voters are going to the polls that day, you can bet they'll be hearing media reports about the car tax going up that day. News reporters may even be asking voters outside the polls what they think about paying more to register their cars beginning that day.
I live 180 miles from the Capitol so maybe I don't understand how the political consultants think in the big city. But why was it a good idea -- if you actually want the measures on the special election ballot to pass -- to have the car tax kick in the same day as the special election.
But on May 19, Californians will be paying more to register their cars under the budget deal just passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. The car tax will go from the current 0.65% of the car's value to 1.15% of the value.
Voters on that day will still be smarting from the increase in the sales tax, which will go up one cent on April 1, as well as increases in the state income tax.
I don't think lawmakers had much choice but to raise taxes and make huge program cuts given the size of the state budget deficit. But if they're really serious about getting the items on the special election ballot passed, they should have considered the timing of the increase in the car tax.
But maybe it won't matter. The governor and the Legislature don't seem to think it's a big deal.
Jim Boren! So far we are the stupid ones. As I have posted befoer "...calves are easily bound and slaughtered never knowing the reason why..."
(Yddish song) The Diaspora experienced Jewish people know life. We could learn a great deal from them.
The newly revealed truth is that we can learn from anyone if "we" weren't a "Nation of Cowards."
By the way, now that Ben is back, Ahmadinejad is about to get an old message..."Blessed is the match...".
I digress....to bad there is no permanent recall entry for each office on state ballots in all elections, special or not.
Speak of stupid. It may be my middle name right now. I searched and searched for the measures to be voted on May 19; 2009.
I just could not find them. Search engines seem not to be my vehicles to enlightenment. (But I am good with photo. HA!)
Stupid is as stupid does.
This is what happens when you elect an actor to office .Didn't we learn from Reagan .Come wih me if you want to live ,I think it's more like come with me if you want to die.Thanks Arnold we should have remembered you were a washed up actor trying to find a new career.
Love ,
the citizens of the
state of Caleefoneeaa
If we hadn't lowered the "car tax" six years ago, we wouldn't be in this budget hole now---but then the Governator wouldn't have been elected, either. Funny how the amount of the deficit is almost equal to the amount that would have been collected by the state for the car tax, times the years Big Boy has been in office....
Carol...we didn't lower the "car tax", we just didn't allow them to triple it to cover their ineptness...big difference...and it's poor leadership not the lack of an increased "car tax" that dug this hole.
Wrong, Brian. The car tax was lowered in 1998, during one of those periodic temporary budget surpluses. When it was lowered, there was a built-in mechanism to raise it again when revenues dropped (as they do during recessions). When that mechanism was triggered in 2003, the electorate had a collective cow and recalled Davis and elected Ahnold on his promise to cut the tax again.
You can point fingers all you want, but both sides have had a hand in this budget debacle. While the Democrats like to increase spending during good times, the Republicans insist on cutting taxes whenever there is a temporary surplus, instead of putting some away for hard times. Now both sides have painted themselves into a corner, and the rest of the world is starting to call California an "ungovernable" state.
Did I point fingers at your beloved socialists only...I don't believe so.The "car tax" was not lowered but left the same.
Don't know who my "beloved socialists" are supposed to be - apparently you don't know much about socialism, but that's neither here nor there as far as my point is concerned.
And yes, the car tax was lowered. It was lowered in 1998, and again in 2003 (after being briefly raised to pre-1998 levels). That's why some people got a refund.
I can lead you to the facts, but I can't make you think.
I completely agree with Inga Barks on this issue, we don't need rainy day funds laying around in Sacramento. These ballot initiatives have been an education for me; that rainy day game is a non-starter. By the way who cares what the world is starting to call California, they don't pay my wasted taxes. Like I posted to someone before Mike, if you think it's so bad here spend a weekend in Cuidad Jaurez.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Well said and factually correct.
Maybe a new romance fanzine? The name-calling , disrespect for knowledge and opposing views are boring and tedious.
Funny, Brian, how history can be rewritten in these blog-style comments. Yes, the car tax was reduced by Governor Schwartzenegger as one of his first acts in office. It put a huge hole in the budget. He was playing on our ignorance then and on our being fed up with the budget not continuing to balloon, as it had been artificially during the technology boom. We are stupid, yes, but mostly in that we forget everything that happened. Then we get to be fed stories by 'journalists' who pretend to forget what happened so they can enjoy a byline, and other stories by people like you, who may have an interest in reconstructing reality. Gray Davis was ousted because of the budget. Now the budget is more than double as bad as it was then. The car tax makes sense, it always did.
Gray Davis was ousted because he could not keep the juice running through a grid on which over-regulated factories and businesses depended. His understanding of how electricity is produced and utilized economically appeared to have a wrongly placed emphasis on the negotiational/political perspective. If future candidates for governor of this state think that food originates in the supermarket and electricity is generated at a meeting then they should either challenge that unuseful belief system, and learn how the real world works, or face a new breed of taxpayers. Incidentally, don't waste more tax dollars rehabilitating Governor Schwarzenegger, there are numerous efforts statewide that will be circulating recall petitions soon. Don't miss this special opportunity to say fare-well.