Taxes and tea parties
April 15, 2009 (posted by Brian Lawlor)California Budget Bites has a timely and topical post today, a reality tonic, if you will, entitled Taxes Are What We Pay for a Civilized Society, by Jean Ross of the non-partisan California Budget Project. (The title of the post originates from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.) Her post about taxes sets the record straight about the relative impact of overall taxes on the low-income, who pay the largest share of their income in state and local taxes. Among other reality checks are her explanation that California is a moderate, not high, tax state when all state and local taxes and fees are taken into account; and high-income Californians are not leaving the state due to higher taxes. Don’t miss the closing observations about the Boston Tea Party.