I have a question. Since just about everyone I talk with seems to agree that living in California is just too expensive, why is it that in every election cycle do voters either keep voting for tax-and-spend politicians, or worse, directly for more taxes?
I have come to the conclusion that most of these voters don’t realize the relationship between the cost of living and taxes, and that many Californians suffer from a cerebral blind spot when it comes to understanding that the current leadership in Sacramento is mostly comprised of an inept cabal interested in only two things: power and their own egos. 
According to a recent report by the federal agency of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a family of four living in San Francisco, San Mateo, or Marin counties that earned less than $117,400 per year is considered “low income.” In Santa Clara County, the low income threshold is $94,000, and in Alameda and Contra Costa, it is $89,600. While out-of-state friends and relatives have a hard time believing these figures, you know this is no joke. For many, it is not uncommon to ask at month’s end, “Where did all the money go?”
Kudos to author and columnist George Kapus for keeping us all up to date on Sacramento’s latest tax-and-spend shenanigans ( see his article in this issue). The more we know about this, the better chance we have at people wising up and voting some of these folks out in the next election.
It might not be so bad if we were really getting something for our money, but the fact is, California rates near the bottom in nearly every metric compared to other states. In a recent survey in U.S. News and World Report, in a ranking that combined education, health care, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability, and quality of life, California ranked 32nd. In the “quality of life category,” we ranked dead last—50th!
How about all the politicians’ claims that California “leads the way” when it comes to the environment? NOT. California also ranked last in urban air quality and 45th in “low pollution health risk.” (Maybe it’s because we’ve replaced that “bad” cigarette and cigar smoke with that “good” (spelled $$) pot smoke.
As George Kapus points out, taxes aren’t collected from us in just the more obvious ways. When you consider that the cost of everything you buy and every service you receive is taxed at every level of distribution, in multiple ways, you can begin to see why everything here is so expensive.
Venture Capitalist Timothy Draper’s proposal to split California into the separate states did qualify for the November ballot (http://Cal3.com). While that political cabal will do everything in its power to discredit the idea, and it has little hope of actually becoming a reality, if enough Californians voted “yes,” it might send a message that things need to change in Sacramento.
Or, we could just go with plan B, and vote for some fiscal conservatives for a change!
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