Gov. Jerry Brown is now advocating a new 1–2 percent increase in the top income tax rates in California, which I think would put them at or over 12 percent. If it is true, as often reported, that 2,000–3,000 residents are leaving California per week, and that many of them are top earners, will the additional taxes entice them back, or do we simply wish them, and many of the jobs they create, good riddance?
This year there were all sorts of sensational news stories in California — some state workers earning over $500,000, mandates for schools to teach gay history, extension of state scholarship eligibility to illegal aliens, the presence of thousands of sinecures on state boards (which Schwarzenegger failed miserably to curtail). Whether insignificant or not, they all had one thing in common: State government dreams up an idea that sounds progressive and then simply passes it, without commensurate worry about how it is to be paid for.
