Wait, California has lower middle-class taxes than Texas?

[Aunt Antifa]

No, I am not wealthy. I just like reasonable taxes, no matter what my income. I like the 2d amendment so CA is intolerable. Little things like plastic bags in supermarkets are nice too. And I like to walk for exercise. Tripping over homeless in La Mesa got old. La Mesa was burned in the Antifa riots too. Glad I moved in time to miss all that.

La Mesa is an absolute shit hole omg no wonder you hate CA…lolololololol

 

[AARguy]

And I’m Jeff Bezos.

Hi Jeff... I am a 1975 graduate of West Point. I was Commissioned Field Artillery and Commanded troops in both the States (E-2-2 at Ft Leonard Wood, MO) and later B Btry, 2d Battalion, 5th FA in Babenhausen, Germany. I earned an MBA along the way. I did other things like head up a worldwide NETT (New Equipment Training Team) for the Army MILES system and ended up with the FSE with TF Tiger in Desert Storm. I retired as an LTC and went to work for Lockheed and later Boeing as a "business developer" traveling the world, talking with US and allied troops to see what sort of needs they had that we could design and build. I took off time along the way to teach high school for awhile and contract with Vinnell Corp to train the NEW Iraqi Army. I stayed in Iraq a second year to work with Wackenhut on staff with the 1,000 firefighters we had in country. I ended up with a startup company that was developing DRM technology, digitizing old "short wave", as well as AM and FM communications. (Interesting stuff. FCC licenses are for 15KH of bandwidth, the traditional size of a single radio station. Using DRM, this could be expanded to four stations with no change in the bandwidth or license.) I retired from their board of directors four years ago and retired. I keep my hand in, consulting on such programs as AID (Automatic Injury Detection) and XEROWIND, an aid for snipers which allows them to determine wind velocity throughout the path of the bullet.

I'm not rich like you Jeff, but I do just fine.

 

[GregTheGreat657]

I think not having a crime epidemic, a homeless crisis, and rolling power outages is worth the extra 0.5%. People put up with taxes for a reason.

 

[AARguy]

I think not having a crime epidemic, a homeless crisis, and rolling power outages is worth the extra 0.5%. People put up with taxes for a reason.

Then come to Texas where crime is really low, power rarely goes out (once in four years. in a huge snowstorm) and there is no state income tax. And for the price of the two bedroom hovel I had in CA, I now have a four bedroom, three bath home that's three times the size.

 

[NolanVoyd]

Doesn't the collection of tolls slow traffic?
Or how can you pay tolls on the fly?

The bay area bridges use fast track, a system that reads your license plate and charges an account. You can go through at 70 mph.....faster probably.

 

[Dittohead not!]

The bay area bridges use fast track, a system that reads your license plate and charges an account. You can go through at 70 mph.....faster probably.

So, that's a way to pay for bridges and roads. We may all have to adopt such a system pretty soon as electric vehicles become more popular. They don't, after all, pay gas taxes.

Still, collecting tolls has some bugs to work out. I sold a pickup to a dealer in Fresno who then sold it to a man in the Bay Area.

Then, I started getting toll notices, then past due toll notices, then better pay up pretty soon notices, all with my former pickup's license number on it.

It took literally months and two registered letters to convince the Fast Trask people that I no longer owned the truck. What a pain.

And then there's the perception that tolls are not taxes. Do people really believe that they are not?

 

[What if...?]

If you are referring to our insane home prices, our problem with housing prices comes from a shortage of housing. The failure to increase the supply of housing, whether single-family residences, multi-unit apartments and everything in between to keep up with the demand of our growing population has naturally led to an increase in the cost. Now, if you mean that low property taxes means that people who already own homes are more easily able to afford keeping the homes they have managed to pay off without having to worry about their homes being foreclosed on at tax auctions, you may be right. But raising property taxes are the ultimate form of regressive tax because it makes it more difficult for the working class or those living on fixed income to own a home and build or maintain wealth. And if someone owns a rental property (single family, multi-family, multi-unit apartment, etc.), the increased property taxes would simply be passed on to the renters.

I do think you're leaving out the shift to rentals as retirement income and airbnb entirely. Virtually all rentals in beach areas in California are now airbnb only. It's not people looking g to buy homes to live in as much as individuals and funds buying every available house to make them rentals. Free mortgage payments. What's not to like?

 

[Luther]

One of the big myths that Republicans like to sell us is that red states necessarily have lower taxes than blue states. The reality of the situation is much murkier.

Wait, California Has Lower Middle-Class Taxes Than Texas?

Wait, California Has Lower Middle-Class Taxes Than Texas?

www.bloombergquint.com

Texas has no state income taxes, but it has some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

The idea that Texas is a low-tax haven is only true for big corporations who reap too many of the benefits.

Perhaps its the MILLIONAIRES in Calif PAYING for everyone else(twice as much as Texas)?

But the left says the rich don't pay their fair share(LOL)

 

[Dittohead not!]

Perhaps its the MILLIONAIRES in Calif PAYING for everyone else(twice as much as Texas)?

But the left says the rich don't pay their fair share(LOL)

I'm pretty sure the millionaires aren't paying my taxes. I'm a middle class Californian, and pay plenty in taxes. Anyway, it would be a simple matter for a wealthy person to buy a house in another state and claim that as their residence rather than pay everyone else's taxes for them.

 

[Gatsby]

Depends how you measure it. Having lived in both states, Texas is definitely tax-friendlier for me (an apartment-dwelling techbro urbanite), but it's a closer call for the average person.

Texas does have higher property taxes, but you can avoid those by not owning a house or owning a smaller house.

I would also argue that the high housing costs in the SF Bay area and LA County are an implicit tax on newcomers to benefit incumbent homeowners, since they are 100% the result of NIMBYs getting their hooks into local government policy. But that doesn't appear anywhere on a government balance sheet, so it doesn't count as a tax for comparison purposes.

Overall, I would say Texas is tax-friendlier to a middle-income person, but it's closer than a lot of people think.

 

[wist43]

As usual the OP disingenuously cherry picks to try and prove that liberal policies are something other than harmful to everyone.

California has the highest fuel tax in the country. Last I checked it was 41 cents/gal higher than Texas.

Excessive regulation has also driven up the cost of doing business - and those costs are passed on to the witless California consumers.

As of 2021, the value of the dollar in California was $0.88 vs Texas at $1.03.

Other hidden costs and slight of hand involve the fact that California, straight up, does not pay its bills. They've been cooking their books for years, and carry a huge debt burden. The state will eventually go bankrupt.

Cherry picking liberals can't put lipstick on the pig that is California.

Anyway you slice it, California is a huge mess.