CA is NOT the highest taxed state

28 Oct, 2014 by John Seiler

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You’ve probably heard California has the nation’s highest taxes.

Wrong.

We’re only third-worst, behind even worse New York and New Jersey, according to a new survey by the Tax Foundation’s new 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index.

Broken down, California ranks 50th — worst — on the income tax, for which we are gouged not just to the bone, but into the bone and down to the marrow.

Corporate taxes — 34th best — and salex taxes — 42nd best — only are a little better.

We’re somewhat better –14th best for both — on the unemployment insurance tax and the property tax — the latter due to the much-reviled Proposition 13, the 1978 tax cut. I hear rumors Democrats and their government-employee union controllers are going to move big time to gut Prop. 13 in the 2016 election. We’ll see. The defenders of Prop. 13 also have resources to keep California from going all the way to North Korea.

The Index noted:

“Anecdotes about the impact of state tax systems on business investment are plentiful. In Illinois early last decade, hundreds of millions of dollars of capital investments were delayed when then-Governor Rod Blagojevich proposed a hefty gross receipts tax. Only when the legislature resoundingly defeated the bill did the investment resume. In 2005, California-based Intel decided to build a multi-billion dollar chip-making facility in Arizona due to its favorable corporate income tax system. In 2010, Northrup Grumman chose to move its headquarters to Virginia over Maryland, citing the better business tax climate. Anecdotes such as these reinforce what we know from economic theory: taxes matter to businesses, and those places with the most competitive tax systems will reap the benefits of business-friendly tax climates.”

Blagojevich was convicted of extortion and currently is serving time at the Federal Correction Institution in Englewood. At least in that case taxpayers know where their stolen tax money ended up.