California Needs Help

The state of California has finally stepped up and attempted to force Amazon to charge sales taxes on the purchases made by California residents. Disregarding the clearly illegal act, since the Superior Court has already long since ruled on the issue, and disregarding for a moment the fact that the move is discriminatory in nature, it's a stupid decision. Why?

The problem isn't Amazon and not collecting taxes. Even if Amazon were to charge tax on every purchase, it wouldn't make a dent in California's debt. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the larger issue; throwing sand on the beach, as it were. The problem is that California has no idea how to increase money even though the answer is so easy a caveman could figure it out.

1: Stop being toxic to businesses. It's too expensive to create and manage a business in California compared to other states. Fix this and more businesses will set up shop here.

2: Stop adding taxes on consumers. The more taxes you add the less people are willing to pay them. You should be able to get away with consumption taxes alone, OR income taxes alone. That you can't even manage debt without applying multiple stacking taxes is ludicrous.

3: Stop catering to illegal immigrants. You spend way too much money giving them free rides instead of compelling them to get legal and pay their fair share.

4: Get involved in the housing issue. Get the home values down to a level that is more reasonable, and stop allowing banks and appraisers to raise the appraised value of a home just because of the zip code it happens to have been built in. This will encourage people to buy said homes, increasing property tax revenue.

5: Once you've gotten home values and prices more reasonable, start tackling Proposition 13. For those that don't know, Prop 13 was beneficial when home prices skyrocketed, but it is no longer sustainable, and if home prices get back to where they should be, amending Prop 13 is part of the key to recovery. That means property taxes should be allowed to increase - within reason. Obviously we can't have an open door here, because the values will go up to astronomical limits and the state will take full advantage of that, but at the very least the cap should be raised.

6: Stop introducing laws that serve no purpose or are not enforced OR start enforcing them more heavily. The cell phone one comes to mind. This is ripe for revenue.

7: Actually go after the wealthy who have evaded paying taxes and stop letting them get a free pass.


I could go on and on. The point I'm making here is that going after Amazon for what amounts to literally pennies on the dollar compared to the many billions of dollars wasted due to California's inaction is going to result in no appreciable benefit for citizens of the state. Fix the existing issues. Then you'll see that in the grand scheme, going after Amazon is another waste of taxpayer money.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• California
• tax
• taxation
• Amazon
• property tax
• Sales tax
• jerry Brown
• Governor

[cristopherkloeess]

All those are good points except for the illegal aliens and the "free rides" they get.U can't seriously think illegals just live for free! What do they get free rent, food, cars etc.? They actually pay taxes every time they make any purchase like we all do. They dont all live under a bridge therefore they pay rent which the landlords uses to pay his morgage which includes property tax..You seem to have forgotten about welfare and the tons of legal residents and citizens who abuse it..

[Bokismoki77]

The people of California are not asking; we are demanding Dream Act passed as soon as possible. Dream Act will add so needed tax revenue to the state budget and hel preduce number of illegal leeches that are draining our resources.