Howard Jarvis is Spinning in his Grave
Posted by JimSan Diego voters are going to possibly be looking at two ballot measures coming this fall that will actually raise taxes. The proposed half-cent sales tax increase and the $98 per house(and $60 per apartment unit) is quite a shift of direction from the spirit of Proposition 13, enacted in 1978. We decided then not to pay for government services. Instead we rolled the dice and hoped that economic expansions would provide enough tax revenue to keep the municipal ship afloat.
This variant on the trickle-down theory worked well enough for several years, at least it appeared so. But the real truth was we just engaged in a giantic shell game. Governments just deferred maintaining the services and the infrastructure that had made California an economic gorilla in the post-war period.
Now the bill is coming due. The over-generous public pension system does not help matters. Like the Greeks, public servants are going to have to learn to work past the age of 55.
Either that or raise taxes. This should be a very interesting election.
