◼ link - Steven Greenhut/Fox&Hounds, crossposted at ◼ Cal Watchdog
Prediction One: Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislative leadership will continue to argue that the state government is on a bare-bones diet, and therefore continue to look for additional revenue to fund it regardless of mounting evidence of waste and excess....
Prediction Two: The state’s optimistic budget projections will not come to pass. This isn’t much of prediction given that they already are falling short....
Prediction Three: Democratic leaders will begin increasing every tax imaginable to fill the gap in what will amount to death by a thousand cuts. When Sen. Ted Lieu proposed tripling the car tax, he backed down as a backlash grew. But that was only because he started the taxing spree too quickly. Soon enough, the leadership will start floating trial balloons including limited assaults on Proposition 13, the 1978 voter-approved property tax limitation that sparked a nationwide tax revolt.
Prediction Four: Legislators will make good on their promise to “reform” the referendum and initiative process, thus assuring that there will be less opportunity for voters — who still tend to be more conservative in their votes on ballot measures than for candidates — to keep a Democratic majority in check....
Prediction Five: Waves of California millionaires and business owners will throw in the towel given that there’s no longer anything to protect them. Businesses often threaten to move, and many leave but more stay. Yet the November election seems to have been the last straw for many wealth producers.
The long-awaited implementation of the bogus “cap and trade” market – essentially a massive tax and a policy that will generate increased utility costs — is yet another impetus for manufacturers in particular to head to friendlier states.
Redevelopment returns
Prediction Six: We’ll see a return of every bad idea including some resurrected version of redevelopment agencies — those property-rights-abusing, central-planning agencies that Brown eliminated as he sought new funds. Now that there’s no problem raising taxes, Brown and legislative leaders will bring them back. California will become an even bigger laboratory for crazy proposals.
MORE, at the link.
◼ 13 Bold Forecasts for 2013: As the new year rolls in, The Kiplinger Letters give you our forecasts on key issues to build into your decisionmaking process.
