Experts Expound

“Is there really a new tax revolt brewing, as some media accounts suggest? Thirty-one years after Proposition 13 was approved, is a new anti-tax plan headed to the ballot?”

Don’t underestimate the outrage of ordinary people over state leaders’ unwillingness or inability to solve budget problems without more taxes.

Democrats need to turn this wave of anger into a tax-fairness reform initiative, not Son of Prop 13.

Considering the state of the economy and the public disdain for our Legislature, there may be a perfect storm brewing.  Would be fun to watch  —  the public employees’ unions vs. the people.

Whether or not there’s a revolt, just the spectacle of the budget fandango is revolting.

There is opposition to extending tax increases, but we probably won’t see a 1978-style fervor for tax cuts.  The fiscal stress is greater and the electorate is more liberal and Democratic. Furthermore, the economic situation is radically different from 1978.  Back then, inflation was artificially increasing housing prices and thus property-tax payments.  This time, housing prices are plunging.

The anti-taxers/no-new-taxers essentially haven’t gone anywhere in statewide politics.  Neither, in my view, will another Prop. 13. 

Nobody likes taxes, but the no-new-tax movement is the private preserve of the Republican right — a minority of the minority.

As tone-deaf as those folks are, it is certain to come. I am more surprised they have not targeted the Legislature as an institution, directly.

Yes, because Prop 13 only crippled local governments in California.  Someone will want to do the same to state government….
Unfortunately no. Voters are too apathetic.

The California political world is now full of organizations with professional staffs that work on this kind of thing full time.  They have a huge financial incentive to fight taxes…it is their job security.

It is with optimism and hope that I say that even my friends who are on the left realize that the tax raisers are out of control. We are seeing this not only through the media’s eyes, but, through expressions of frustration and a growing awareness that the government shouldn’t be doing what it is, or be heading in the direction it is.

Multiple friends who voted for Obama have told me that they are sorry they did.

For me, that means hope.

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