“Arnold Wants To Terminate 220 State Parks”

[Ali e]

Congratulations ken you are the one in a million like the guy who hits the jackpot while everybody else keeps feeding the machines. Write offs almost never equal the savings of simply saving. Sounds like you have a beautiful place now, I love California. Cheers Ali :)

Edit not enough coffee

[Ken Helwig]

Ali, it is nice where I live. AND….I am thankful too!!! I live five minutes from the beach, and I can look out my window and see mountains and redwood trees

[W I S N E R !]

I think you're absolutely right Ali, my wife and I were just debating the same point this morning.
For those of you that made a killing off your houses, congratulations on your good timing. But if you had to start over right now, in this market, could it happen again?
If you compare my income to housing prices in my area, it would take me over just over 50% of my income to purchase a house that would only cost 25% to rent (and the rental would likely be in far better condition)…and the chances of that house doubling in value (again) over the coming years are looking really slim. What's the point? As Ali said, in all probability I can currently rent, live stress free, and save more $$$ than I'd get back in equity/write offs.

I know someone will soon say "California is out of control- why not just move to a better housing market?". Because the cities/states with the insane housing markets happen to be where all the jobs are; I have 10 years in with my current employer…at this point I stand to lose quite a bit (especially job security) if I try and start over somewhere else.

It seems to me that the generation born between the early 70's and 1980 (mine) is going to get majorly screwed in the coming decades. We'll bear the brunt of the huge social costs (very soon to come) of taking care of the enormous baby-boomer generation of retirees while simultaneously having major difficulties acquiring value in our housing and building a solid retirement.

[David W.]

While it is obvious that California's budget problems are very real, we have seen threats of closing State parks, releasing prisoners, cuts to education, withholding tax refunds, etc, etc….. In fact, it was only a few months ago we had mid year budget deficit and these same threats were made. A lot of these threats are political grandstanding by the Governor to get people all riled up about saving their special interest of choice. Suddenly, voting for the Governor's failed propositions, supporting increased taxes, or seeing some other program get cut doesn't seem so bad when your favorite program is on the chopping block.

Here is a great article in the Economist which really hits California's problems on the head in my opinion.

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?STORY_ID=13649050

It is time to do away with the proposition system, the 2/3 majority needed to pass a budget, the gerrymandered districts that send extremists to the Sacramento and perhaps most importantly of all – Proposition 13.

[Allison Sayre]

Here's an idea: Legalize Marijuana. You could tax the hell out of it and it could still be cheaper than street prices. MJ has been proven over and over to be not even remotely as dangerous as alcohol.

You would also save a ton of money as you could release all those people in prison for marijuana-related crimes.

Two birds, one stone.

[David W.]

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/01/opinion/ed-drugtax1

LA TIMES OPINION FEBRUARY 1, 2008
New York's 'crack tax'
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has a plan to fill his state's budget hole, one drug dealer at a time.

There aren't many state governors trickier than Arnold Schwarzenegger when it comes to budget sleight of hand, but New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is Siegfried to his Roy. Spitzer's approach to his state's serious budget shortfall — and it's so crafty that our pride is a little wounded because our governor didn't think of it first — involves imposing a new tax on a group so universally despised that few voters could possibly object: drug dealers.

Spitzer's proposal, dubbed the "crack tax" by Gotham wags, is a sales tax on drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. Logicians and other wet blankets would argue that you can't tax an illegal product whose sales are of necessity off the public books, but that isn't quite true. After you've convicted a drug offender, you can seize his cash and other assets as taxes on the narcotics found in his possession.

Of course, that would be illegal if the dealer or addict never had an opportunity to pay the tax to begin with, and crystal meth profits aren't the kind of thing you can report on a 1040. New York has a solution for this: Dealers would be able to buy tax stamps from state authorities, costing $3.50 per gram of marijuana and $200 per gram of more powerful mind-melters such as cocaine and heroin, which they could then affix to their stash. If the cops raided a warehouse and turned up neatly stamped packs of crack, the dealer would still face drug charges, but at least he would be free of the tax bite. Of course, neither Spitzer nor anyone else actually expects drug dealers to buy the stamps; they're a necessary fiction.

The remarkable thing about the crack tax is that some version of it already exists in 29 states. Even more remarkable is that California, which never tires of piling new levies on social misfits like cigarette smokers, isn't one of them. Maybe that's because new taxes require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature in this state, and the crack tax is too wacky even for Left Coasters. Or because it's more than a little creepy to make the state reliant on drug sales to balance its books. Or perhaps it's that once one sets off down the road of taxing illegal activity, there's no telling where it will end. One New York assemblyman wondered aloud what kind of stamp authorities would affix to prostitutes if the governor decided to propose another kind of sin tax.

Then again, New York's deficit of $4.4 billion looks pretty manageable next to California's anticipated budget gap of $14.5 billion. Spitzer estimates that his crack tax will bring in $13 million in the first year. Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, has proposed closing the gap in part by shutting nearly one in five state parks, a move that would save … wait for it … $13 million.

We can see the campaign slogan now: Snort a rail, save a trail.

[kyle davis]

if your paying 2500 a month you need to move out hee to co dosent cost us that that much for sure. just saying?

[Ali e]

The 2500 was when I was living in Newport on the bay. Now I live in The San Juans on the bay for FREE :) Co is on my list but that list gets longer everyday. If all goes well the end of the year will find us in Alaska. Ali

[Dylan Skola]

If the writer had done any kind of basic research on this story, they would have discovered that the idea is over 70 years old. But I guess it's easier to come up with lame Siegfried-Roy metaphors for Spitzer's "craftiness." The first federal regulation against cannabis was a 1937 tax stamp act:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Marijuana_Tax_Act

It was ruled unconstitutional in 1969 because applying for the stamp was a form of self-incrimination and therefore violated the 5th ammendment. Not sure how this applies to the state laws.

Poor LA Times can't afford real reporters anymore it looks like. Wait, nevermind, it's an opinion piece from an editor. Yikes. It's end times for the paper biz.

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