It is not surprising that public employee unions are behind the push to smear the CA republicans.
I consider the public employee unions the real budget busters with their rediculously high pensions and other benefits that far exceed anything you can get in the private sector. The pols of this state do not represent the public at large...they are toally beholden to the these unions.
The democrats that are most beholden these unions outnumber the repulicans by almost 2 to 1.
And don't forget latest scandle in Orange County, CA where it has been discovered that many government employees ride the toll roads for free because of a law that protects their private information. Also they out of tickets and other infractions as serious as DUI because police are less inclined to finger those they now are government employees.
Tax-Free Yachts--Brought to you by the Republican Party
The Republican tax cut cult, as Arianna so aptly calls it in her new book, has achieved its zenith in California. Here, if you must have a yacht or private jet, you can have it tax-free. All you have to do is keep it out of the state for ninety days from the time of purchase and you pay no sales or use tax. But if you need a car you're taxed on it, no matter where you buy it. And last I checked, more working people need cars than yachts. As one of only three states in the union that mandates a two-thirds legislative majority to pass a budget (a key element of the right wing success in choking government), California's Republican Party can and does annually hold the budget hostage in return for subsidies for the rich.
This week, Governor Schwarzenegger will be forced to guess at the size of the budget deficit mountain. His team has suggested that it may become a new peak in the Alps, jutting up somewhere between $10 and $20 billion. I did not go to school in Austria like Arnold, but by my math that's a 100% difference, a pretty big guess even for him. And this year, unlike years past, if the legislature cannot come up with a budget by the end of the summer, our state will be broke.
Even in the face of that, the governor's Republican Party stands firm behind a loophole that costs at least $26 million a year. That's why the Courage Campaign, with funding from the California Nurses Association, created Yacht Party 2. You'll see the whole story in sixty seconds.
It's the essence of the Republican Party story in 2008: cut education, healthcare, housing, everything you can, but secure the lifestyles of those wealthiest among us. John McCain has nine houses, but no plan for Americans to keep or buy even one. While Mr. McCain has not spoken out about the yacht subsidies for the richest Californians, we have to believe he'd welcome his colleagues from California sailing right up the Potomac.
Tax free yachts. Brought to you by the California Yacht (Republican) Party. Wonder what they'll think of next?
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Yea, the government needs this tax to pay for the overbloated pensions and benefits all the public employee unions voted themselves.
how about this negotiation:
the yacht owners can have their tax break ONLY if they provide their yacht for 10 GAY WEDDINGS per year.
(p.s. it was good to meet you today, Rick)
Come on - remember basic tax theory - when you levy a tax, you not only redirect money, you also change behavior. I live in SE Connecticut, near a lot of the boatyards that build power boats, racing yachts, etc. A while ago the Feds has a 10% excise tax on large non-commercial boats. Darn near killed the boatbuilding industry here. The people buying the high end yachts changed their behavior, bought their yachts overseas (Choi Lee yards in Hong Kong was a favorite) and hired a crew to sail the boat across (10% of a 400K sale price makes it worth while). When they tweaked the rules to make it harder to register foreign built boats, the owners registered and berthed their boats in the Bahamas, and our local marinas and repair yards took a hit. The little guy who builds boats took it on the nose, not the rich buyer.
This tax sounds neat, but because the rich change their behavior, the people the tax really hits are the boat builders and the marinas. The Fed tax never raised the money they expected either.
And if the gov't had instituted a similar tax on the boats being purchased from overseas, then you wouldn't have had that problem, now would you?
Don't tax yachts of the rich? "Are you nuts?" as Ralph Kramden used to reply? Tax the hell out of their yachts and jets. Let the shipyard builders build surf boards! Don't tax the rich . . . Heh, heh, heh.
As long as it pays to be dishonest with little chance of having to answer for it our politicians will game the system in ways that cater to an elite economic class of citizens. One in which, not coincidentally, they happen to belong.
The only way to change this is for the entire nation to deluge our elected officials with a demand for true change that isolates government from the rampant economic bias that has so overtaken this nation.
Unfortunately, I doubt enough people are suitably civic minded, adequately informed and able to fully understand the degree with which this circumstance is harming the nation. True equality of representation for the majority doesn't exist in this country and isn't something I expect to ever see.
The 10% luxury tax was a loser for the industry and hurt our economy. The Sales tax is equal pay for unequeal pkay. If you can afford the boat you can afford the tax. Why are the rich so greedy. The big guy is sitting in the can because he cheated on sales tax in New York.. It wasn't even his money. If you live the good life remember the adage , " It is better to live well than live in hell with a greedy and sometimes guilty conscience "
The tax loopholes for private jets (such as the McCain's) and yachts is unconscionable, and indicative of the larger problem. The party of the rich is holding our government ransom for their personal gain, and getting away with it.
So, what can be done about it? How did we get into the situation that we are in today, where a minority is able to stop the state government from functioning?
It seems to me that we have two alternatives. The first one is to elect a 2/3rds majority of Democrats. The problem with this idea is that if all of the power is concentrated in just one party, they will eventually become as corrupt as the GOP is today. We need some sort of balance of power, and a one party system will not give us that.
The second alternative seems to be to go back to requiring a simple majority to pass a budget. On the face of it, this is completely logical, but I have no doubt that the GOP will not willingly give up their power to hold the legislature up for ransom.
Just the other day on this site, I read an article written by people from the show Ugly Betty. They are all upset because the show is relocating to NewYork. New York is giving them something like a 35% tax break. They want Arnold to provide competitive benefits to keep the industry in California. Makes sense, but how many tax breaks can a state provide before it goes belly up? Businesses of all types are leaving California because other states are more accomidating. Wake up people. We need to entice business to come to California. They provide tax income, they provide jobs, and a thousand other benefits. These articles are written by power-thirsty democrats who are sitting on their yachts anchored off Catalina.
For which they paid taxes on. The law encourages yachts to be built out of state. GET IT?
While I'm all for the Rich paying their fair share of taxes, taxing luxury items such as yachts is just a feel-good measure which will do little to close the deficit. The state needs to make a serious effort to either greatly increase revenue or greatly reduce spending and this isn't going to do it.
You're right, this is little more than a red-herring by itself. However, when you add ALL the things that CA is doing for the rich which they AREN'T doing for the poor, all the while suffering from more money lost than I will EVER see in my life!!!
Rethugs sound like the communst "true believers" in the old USSR, whining about western liberals (you know: freedom, a real vote, etc.) ruining the Soviet State. The Soviet hierarchy had their privileges, just like the American wealthy. There was no revolution in 1989. The Soviet state simply stopped. During the 1930s, America almost stopped. The Communist party USA was the fastest growing political party in the US back then. People wonder why there were so many communists in the US government in the '40s and '50s. It was the near breakdown of the nation caused by Hoover's political philosophy of callous indifference to suffering. Luckily FDR was elected. Too much of the MSM is controlled by too few people today for there ever to be another FDR. Kiss your country goodbye.
Last week thousands of teachers who work(ed) for the LAUSD received their pink slips, as did teachers throughout the state. Arnold, the Guvernator, cut 10% of the state's education budget, and ordered every other government department to cut 10% from their budgets. Next month (or whenever they finally pass the budget) the yacht/ jet "tax holiday" will no doubt be back in the budget.
I remember that last year one group pleaded with Arnold to allow a very successful homeless programme to stay alive. The cost of the programme wouldn't have made a dent. Just months before, the Guvernator had praised the programme, but the answer was no. Apparently the yachts and private jets needed the support, since the people who purchase them are homeless, and need a place to sleep. Tax-free yachts and private jets to house the homeless- what a unique concept.
The administrators of each school district decide where the cuts are going to be. How many of the administrators lost their jobs? How many took a pay cut? I know the answer...0. This not so secret practice is occuring all over the state. Do you see where the money stays? Not in the classroom.
That's true, but it's also a little bit questionable. Yes, the administrators choose where to make the cuts, but the fact that the state is forcing them to MAKE the cuts.......
I will grant you that the state of CA is spending more than they bring in, but since the problems with the schools are twofold (paying too many administrators, and not getting enough funding) then the state should be bringing in enough money to PAY for the schools, and the roads, and the police, and the fire department, and everything ELSE that they have to pay for, while at the same time they should be telling the school districts that they need to have fewer administration positions.
Although I'm not in CA, at my daughter's high school there is a Principal, 7 Vice Principals, 15 Deans of various departments, and 8 Deans of students (2 for each grade!) Tell me that's not too much brass!
Because you should not spend more than you bring in. How does following that simple principle make the Governor the bad guy here.
Here's why!
People in Nebraska keep asking me why I moved from sunny California to the heartland.
Here's why!
Oh, and a house costs 1/4 as much.
Why should the GOP not back the guys who have bought for them their offices. The GOP bought them for a pittance.
Never forget: "A rising tide lifts all yachts!"
I liked the original commercial Yacht 1
http://digg.com/politics/Republicans_SOS_Save_the_yacht_owners
Although it does focus more on content and lacks hotties.
Seriously! I can understand goppers concerns about the tax burden on small business owners and families, but yacht owners...???? Really?? I remember when all of the wealthy people in California were going to leave if we passed the 1% tax on the wealthiest to fund mental health services. It passed and no mass exodus from California ensued. Sure some taxes are burdensome, but this one is fair.
This is a very old hat. No matter how bad it smells, it just won't go away.
The Shock Doctrine looms in CA.
Arnold is exaggerating the size of the budget, refusing to give on new taxes (along with the republican minority in the legislature), and giving evidence that despite his efforts to remake his image as a republican lite politician, that he is true to the corporate core a republican. Let us not forget his admiration for Milton Friedman (see http://gov.ca.gov/proclamation/5205/). California will experience the shock doctrine unless the dems in the legislature push back with the voters at their backs. I am concerned.
It is a disgracefull example of how the powerfull jigger the laws to favor their own interests. Unfortunately we tend to heap animosity onto the rich as if adding a new tax law would fix things but instead we find the powerfull simply use thier wealth and influence to manipulate the system so more and blammo! We're not stuck with another byzantine law we need a team of experts that we can't afford anyway in order to not get snarled up in it outselves.
It's for this reason I favor eliminating the criteria of wealth as a form of personal taxation and favor the implementation of a consumer tax (the two must be simultaneous or we'll end up with both), because there is certainly one thing the rich do that is taxable that I don't: spend vast sums of money. The complaint th at it is unfair to the poor to tax their basic needs might be true on the surface but in reality the system we have now is very unfair and everything we do to try to even it out makes it even more cumbersome and that really burdens those of us who would like to save and build for a better tomorrow.
This comment is for all californians.We can snipe at ANY politician 24/7/365, but the ugly truth is that every californian must take responsibility for having the attention span of a gnat where it concerns california governmental shenanigens......When there is SOMETHING we don't like, we RECALL.........Think for a minute, WE ALLOW our legislators in Sacramento to spend OUR HARD EARNED tax $$$$ llike drunken sailors..California's budget priorities have been allowed to run rudderless for years....NOONE could possibly run their own household budget in that way and remain fiscally viable...WHY are WE, the people of California NOT forcing the legislators to set spending priorities..? For instance:...ALL gas taxes collected MUST be spend on HIghways, roads, and maintenance (infrastructure)....ONLY.- instead, we allow these funds to go into the GENERAL FUND,....HELLO....!!!!!!!!!
..How many of us have increased car repairs because the abominably bad roads ALL OVER this state..?Must we first have people killed in a bridge collapse before our attention gets drawn to where it REALLY belongs..?...There should be a freeze on ALL legislators wages until our budget is balance...(there's an incentive for them to sit down, roll up their sleeves and do REAL LEGISLATING, instead of traipsing all over the world (1st class) to "learn how to run California"............Let's reform our budgetary process, instead of Alice-in-Wonderland system we now ..WAKE UP,,EVERYBODY..Democrat, Repubican, Independent, yes the disenchated need to get in on this.....
I would like for Don Perata to refund every penny of taxpayer money that was spend on the recall of Jeff Denham. This whole stunt is a shame to the state and to his party.
This has been talked about before.. unlike cars, luxury yachts are a purchase that can be deferred - or done elsewhere (set up a trust in the Caribbean, buy a yacht, and keep it down there..). So when they taxed these luxury items heavily, the market dried up.. which then put a LOT of boat builders out of business, who then laid off all their employees.
For people who argue about a loophole here, remember the biggest loopholes that many people receive - its not on boats or cars.. its the mortgage interest deducation on your home and the deductibility of employee-paid health insurance. We have met the special interests and they are us.
As for Cali, the boat builder tax pales in comparison to the benefits handed out to public sector unions in the past 20 years. Anyone visit the bankrupt city of Vallejo recently?
Name two local (to California) boat builders that went out of business because of a California luxury tax.
Well your "Loophole" agrument is pretty damn Loopy if you ask me! You said "For people who argue about a loophole here, remember the biggest loopholes that many people receive - its not on boats or cars.. its the mortgage interest deducation on your home".
The thing you seem to forget is people with mortgages pay this little thing called...Property Taxes.
Most of us can't afford a Yacht or a personal aeroplane like Corporate CEOs let alone buy one and secret it out of the State where it was purchased and keep from paying sales taxes on it. Mortgage Interest deductions wouldn't be necessary if it were not for the USERY of the mortgage lending institutes.
More endless whining (envy) regarding the so-called rich. Can't we get past this ridiculous point? As a factual matter the rich currently pay 90% of the taxes but you'd never know it from all the endless slagging. It is almost as dumb -probably the same idiots- who promote the lie that energy companies are responsible for high gas prices. The level of internet-fueled, ignorant, potty mouthed moron-hood is a rampant and growing astonishment.
While I will grant that the rich do pay more of the taxes as a dollar amount than the poor, there are two things that you are either forgetting, or ignoring:
The rich pay a smaller PERCENTAGE of the taxes (compared to their income) than do the middle class and poor, while using a MUCH LARGER percentage of the state's outlays than do the middle class and poor.
The state is between 10 BILLION and 20 BILLION dollars in the hole, THIS YEAR ALONE!
Because of these two facts, the rich should not only be paying a larger dollar amount, they should be paying a larger percentage, AND the state needs to take in more money, thus defeating your entire "argument"!
Cavuto,is that you?
They don't pay 90% of the taxes. That's a ridiculous claim.
They pay about 70%. And that's only because they control about 80% of the wealth.
The missing 10% tax burden is shouldered by the working class who don't have the tax shelters, right offs, and accountants the rich do.
So let's quit the argument about how much the rich pay in taxes. It's idiotic.
Do you have any kind of statistic on the number of "Rich" who actually earned their wealth as opposed to those who inherited it? My experience is that the most rabidly conservative tax cutters who sneer at those who "just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps" are those sitting on a trust fund. Furthermore as you should know wealth at a certain level creates opportunities unavailable to 98% of US citizens. Like the opportunity to influence local, regional and even national legislation, subsidies and regulations to further enrich themselves. Maybe we ought to divide up the debt and allocate a share according to net worth and weight by if it was actually earned by the holder.
I don't have the hard figures regarding how many richies are "trustafarians" but one has only to look at the American dynasties who have intermarried with each other over the past 100 years to know that there is a concerted effort to keep the wealth within a very elite circle. Having lived 35 years in Boston and Cape Cod I certainly had a firsthand look. Here in California where I now live there is more "new money" but on the east coast it is definitely dynastic, and of course that is the location of Washington DC, the headquarters of the "Power Elite".
My point, exactly. It's a real chortle to hear some Baptist preacher rail on the "Liberal Elites" when this poor deluded turkey and the rest of his flock is being used to provide the feathers for nests behind gates where folks like Richard Mellon Scaife lurk. They really don't know who the real Elite are.
Posted May 12, 2008 | 11:58 AM (EST)