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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Few, The Proud, The California Tax-Killers

A few dozen Californians bravely strode forth and slayed Gov. Schwarzenegger's tax dragon. Five tax-hiking propositions that the governor and other Sacramento politicians tried to con us into believing would fix the budget deficit failed to get past the voters. (The solution is to shrink the state government, as Jason Clemens wrote today.)

Two of the initiatives would have broken into two piggy-banks funded by previously approved taxes for mental health and children's health, and rolled those dollars into the general fund. I'm glad that the voters rejected them, but I've previously argued that the original taxes were also harmful, although they were sure winners years ago at the ballot-box.

But fans of Big Government need not despair: President Obama has recanted his previous nullification of the Golden State's Medi-Cal (Medicaid) bailout. Perhaps he was embarassed when Gov. Schwarzenegger and his subordinates disclosed that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) participated in his teleconference with the White House, when they discussed reducing wages to home-health workers. Certainly, the SEIU expressed extreme displeasure that the governor disclosed this information.

But the federal bailout of Medi-Cal will not suffice to feed the relentless growth of California's government-run health-care behemoth. What's next? Well I've been around long enough to be pretty confident that I can identify the next target: those pesky smokers.

In case anyone wants to prepare for that fight, here's my 2006 paper debunking the notion that hiking California's tax on smokers will solve any problems, either health or budget related.

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