Reason on Television: Tim Cavanaugh Talks Cal. Budget Highjinks on 10 O'Clock News
California's legislature is voting today on a budget proposal filled with gimmicks, taxes and accounting shenigans.
Among the ways Golden State Democrats plan to encourage business and growth: a quarter cent local sales tax increase, a tax on online purchases, a new vehicle license fee and a surcharge for people who live in high-fire-risk areas.
Wait, how can there be taxes when the recently approved Proposition 26 requires taxes to be subject to a two-thirds majority? While a few lone crackpots warned that Prop 26's simple-majority-budget provision would lead inevitably to simple-majority tax increases, the state's best and brightest assured Californians the 66.6 rule would remain in place for new taxes.
Reason Senior Editor Tim Cavanaugh appeared on Los Angeles Fox 11 News last night to discuss how much the paycheck-protection budget will cost us, how Caifornians have to vote too often, why "canceling a quarter-cent tax decrease" is still a tax, and more:
