California Democrats' Stinking Pile of Tax Hikes

Picture the scene:

Boarded up homes. Factories crumbling to dust. Towns depopulated. Once giant behemoths of production, now little more than rubble. Former broad causeways of industry now only populated by tumbleweeds and vermin feasting upon carrion.

A post-apocalyptic scenario? A nuclear holocaust?

No, a realistic depiction of the future of California if the Democrats' preferred tax policy becomes a reality. California is already bleeding citizens at an alarming rate. In the last 5 years over 2.5 million tax-refugees have fled its borders and sought sanctuary in lower-tax states. Virtually no-one chooses to move there. And this mass exodus of almost Biblical proportions is increasing in raw terms at an alarming average rate of 25% a year.

Rather than reversing this trend, California's policies of reducing economic freedom have been statistically proven to exacerbate it. Just as when climbed the Berlin wall, people are fleeing California's opressive tax regime in search of economic freedom. The Golden State is set to become the Ghost State.

As we reported yesterday, California's Democrats again put their hard-left ideological agenda above the needs of the California people and voted for an unprecedented and unconstitutional $9.1 billion tax hike. Having passed this illegal proposal and given a giant up-yours to the constitution and California taxpayers, they announced lawmakers are going home for the holidays.

In a rare moment of sanity however, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger briefly remembered that he was actually elected on the promise to cut the size of Government and said he'd veto the proposal and recall the legislators by Executive Order (probably fearing that if he didn't recall them, he himself would be recalled). Of course, his reasons for the veto had nothing to do with the illegality of the legislation, or the job-killing, economy-destroying, freedom-hating tax grabs, but only due to the fact that they didn't include some of his (admittedly laudable) proposals to relax draconian Environmental regulations. But in the torrid wasteland of Californian politics, we'll take whatever victory we can.

Today, the Governor warned Big Labor that he will order two-day-a-month unpaid furloughs for state employees, and an outright 10 percent pay cut for managers and non-union employees over 18 months and a 10 percent elimination of jobs in the state workforce. The unions, of course, plan to sue, preferring everyone to be unemployed in California equally.

The Governor also stated: "I ask the people of California ... to put pressure on the legislators. E-mail them, call them, and send them cards. Really bombard them and just let them know 'we sent you there to do the right thing.' Indeed. So for once we agree with the Governor. Contact your legislators and let them know exactly where they can stick their tax hikes."