Billionaire or not, California is coming for your money
Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his final state budget plan at the Capitol in Sacramento on May 14. The budget he signed on Monday includes several new taxes.
A flood of Biblical proportions is coming to California, and no, I’m not talking about the weather.
I’m talking about taxes.
Yes, there’s the infamous billionaire wealth tax, which Californians will officially vote on in November after Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers failed last week to strike a deal with the measure’s proponents to keep it off the ballot.
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But a deluge of other tax increases is also in the works.
Rich or poor, California is coming for your money.
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Let’s start with the nearly $352 billion state budget Newsom signed into law on Monday. Although Newsom described it, smugly, as “on time, balanced and structurally sound,” the reality is far less rosy.
For years, California has been spending more money than it’s brought in, creating a structural deficit despite raking in record revenues thanks to the artificial intelligence frenzy. To balance things out on paper, Newsom and lawmakers have relied on a host of accounting gimmicks and pulled billions of dollars out of reserves.
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You don’t need to be an accountant to grasp that dipping into your savings during a period of surging income isn’t smart fiscal policy.
“These actions should be reserved for addressing revenue shortfalls in downturns, not to balance the budget during a revenue boom,” the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office warned in a recent report.
Yet Newsom and lawmakers decided in their budget agreement to wring even more money from everyday Californians via several new taxes set to take effect in 2027.
One will charge you state and local sales........
