We blogged last week on how the golden state has surged past Mississippi and West Virginia to acquire the dubious honor of having the highest poverty rate in the U.S.
An excellent piece in City Journal by Kerry Jackson tied California's poverty rate–which is pretty astonishing given the industries that also thrive in the state–to government programs, many ostensibly to reduce poverty. I called California's high poverty rate a man-made disaster.
Well, now it looks like the state is at it again–it will attempt to in effect confiscate the tax cut large companies would ordinarily receive from tax reform. Fox News reports:
Assemblymen Kevin McCarty and Phil Ting, both Democrats, introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 22, which calls for a 10 percent surcharge on companies with a net earnings over $1 million. The plan could potentially raise billions for the state's social services programs.
“It is unconscionable to force working families to pay the price for tax breaks and loopholes benefiting corporations and wealthy individuals,” Ting said in a statement, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. “This bill will help blunt the impact of the federal tax plan on everyday Californians by protecting funding for education, affordable health care and other core priorities.”
First off, working families don't pay for tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and rich people. Corporations are expected to more than pay for the cuts themselves through providing more jobs and creating prosperity. Tax reform cut the corporate rate from 35 to 21 percent.
As for the Democrats' pious claim that they would like to tax the rich more, ask them about the limit on state and local tax deductions–that it a provision in the tax reform that will only affect the very affluent. And Democrats are kicking and screaming about it!
Because the Democrats have lost their supermajority in the Assembly, the bill is far from a shoo in.