Friday, November 27, 2015

"The treasury is spilling over, but some unions want to keep collecting income taxes at the highest rate in state history."



Here is one thing for California to be thankful for: The state treasury is overflowing with tax money.

Long gone are the dark years of multibillion-dollar deficits — $42 billion in 2008 — and sharp cuts in state services, especially healthcare for the poor and education.

Credit the recovering national economy. Gov. Jerry Brown also gets a high-five for holding big spenders in check. But the governor's 2012 voter-approved, soak-the-rich tax hike was a crucial budget healer.

The nonpartisan legislative analyst's office reported last week that the state's tax take for the current fiscal year is expected to exceed earlier estimates by $3.6 billion. And by the end of the next fiscal year, the state is on track to have $11.5 billion in reserve....

A proposed ballot measure to continue the so-called temporary tax hike 12 years beyond its scheduled Dec. 31, 2018, cutoff was cleared by the secretary of state for signature collection. The initiative's sponsors are the California Teachers Assn. and the state Services Employees International Union.

That's right: The treasury is spilling over, but some unions want to keep collecting income taxes at the highest rate in state history.
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