Taxifornia
A subscription-only op-ed by David Henderson a few days ago in The Wall Street Journal describes four initiatives on the ballot in the Golden State in November:
Proposition 86 seeks a $2.60 per-pack levy on cigarettes, on top of an already-high 87 cents per pack. Proposition 87 would tax every barrel of oil pumped from an in-state well. Proposition 88 would impose a $50 tax on every parcel of land. And Proposition 89 would impose an additional two-tenths of a percentage point increase in the current tax on California corporations.
All have negative consequences: 86 is a very regressive tax, 87 will lead to less oil-business actvity, 88 will impose costs on top of similar costs that already exist, and 89 at the margins will cause businesses to flee or at least choose not to grow in the state.
Of all the problems Cali has, one of them is NOT that its taxes aren’t high enough. Beyond that, each measure also has its own problems in messing up the economy. I would suppose that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be out from telling voters that these measures should fall into the sea.
California will drive people and business out of the state if these measures pass. The law of unintended consequences will come into play.
Comment by LargeBill — October 17, 2006 @ 8:22 am
#1, my guess is that 87 will pass, that 89 could go either way, and that 86 and 88 will fail.
Comment by TBlumer — October 17, 2006 @ 1:21 pm