{"id":609,"date":"2004-11-18T17:08:43","date_gmt":"2004-11-18T17:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:08:53","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:08:53","slug":"a_rachet_works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=609","title":{"rendered":"A Ratchet Works Only One Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t have a lot of time to write about this, but thought it shouldn’t go without comment.<\/p>\n

In the Business section of today’s Los Angeles Times, columnist Michael Hiltzik criticizes the Governator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s OK, there are a fair number of things to criticize him for. But note the implicit policy tilt in this quote:<\/p>\n

A big risk would have been to suggest that the property tax regime created under Proposition 13 requires a serious updating; Schwarzenegger silenced his one advisor who raised the issue, Warren Buffett. (To his eternal discredit, Buffett put up with the muzzling.)<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A big risk would have been to acknowledge that without higher taxes, California will spend beyond its means not only this year, but also next year and into the foreseeable future. Instead, Schwarzenegger chose to balance the budget by extracting sacrifices from the poor, the medically needy, children, teachers and families supporting college students. (The Legislature eventually forced him to abandon a few of these choices.)<\/p>\n

\nThe idea that Schwarzenegger’s budget reflects a sustainable strategy is mystifying. Consider the consequences of his decision to cut $4 billion in state revenue by rescinding the car-tax increase and to replace the money through bond sales, bookkeeping stunts and raids on local governments and educational institutions. The whole package looks very much like the one that helped get Gov. Davis pilloried.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the record, there are changes to Prop 13 that I believe should be made (I’ve talked about it, specifically in assuring that corporate and partnership transfers trigger reassessment, as they are in fact sales of the property), and I don’t think that Calikfornia is overtaxed, just badly taxed.<\/p>\n

I’ll have a longer comment on the budget here in California (and the overall fiscal crisis of state and local government). But it’s interesting to note the blindness on both sides; in this case, someone who flatly cannot concieve of any solution except to raise taxes to cover whatever spending our legislators have voted in.<\/p>\n

Should someone send Mr. Hiltzik a copy of Demosclerosis<\/a>? I just might…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Los Angeles Times business columnist explains that spending is sacrosanct and taxes are too low. Hilarity ensues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}