California Governor, Without Republicans To Obstruct Him, Creates Budget Surplus

[rehmwa 2]

jcd11235

***Very good in theory, but in practice no government has been able to resist the temptation to blow a surplus on, for example, unnecessary wars,.

Yes. Good fiscal policy is a small, but important, aspect of good governance. Responsible policy in other aspects of government is also necessary.

I agree - frankly, what you talked about (going over a little, then going under a little... year to year.... would be equivalent to a balanced budget in my mind.) But even when we can forecast a future potential for a surplus, you can't win by then increasing spending more that now. And then more, and then more.


Kallend is right also, despite his clear poke at a single type of example - (at least it was one that is blamable on both parties and not the usual himbad/usgood stuff). But you can't have a long term balance if every time you think you have a surplus, or can fake the books to pretend you have a surplus, or just ignore the fact that you might someday get a surplus, you then increase spending even more than the surplus. Or pretend that a TON of spending increases now will magically reduce spending in 12 years... But it's worse than Kallend's comment - we don't "blow the surplus" on a single big item - we blow it on permanent long term spending increases....

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[champu 1]

I'll share a few numbers from 2012 to put this in perspective. I live in California, I do okay but wouldn't qualify as "rich", I'm a W-2 employee, file single, and I own a 1700 sq ft townhouse.

Last year, after all the dust settled, my federal tax bill including income and my portion of medicare and fed oasdi was $X. My California tax bill including income, oasdi, property tax, and vehicle registration was about 0.75 * $X. The sales tax in this and surrounding towns is 9%. I honestly couldn't tell you off hand how much I spent last year that was subject to sales tax, but I would estimate somewhere between 0.1 and 0.15 * $X paid in sales taxes.

So my total state burden was about 85% to 90% of my total federal burden.

[kelpdiver 2]

champu

I'll share a few numbers from 2012 to put this in perspective. I live in California, I do okay but wouldn't qualify as "rich", I'm a W-2 employee, file single, and I own a 1700 sq ft townhouse.

Last year, after all the dust settled, my federal tax bill including income and my portion of medicare and fed oasdi was $X. My California tax bill including income, oasdi, property tax, and vehicle registration was about 0.75 * $X. The sales tax in this and surrounding towns is 9%. I honestly couldn't tell you off hand how much I spent last year that was subject to sales tax, but I would estimate somewhere between 0.1 and 0.15 * $X paid in sales taxes.

So my total state burden was about 85% to 90% of my total federal burden.

I was going to say this seems wildly off, but then I added my (new) property tax build to the totals and it seems in the ballpark. and this is before I factor in the new fed deductions for interest and property tax.

That said, what would the ratio be if you couldn't deduct state income and property taxes as well as the loan interest?

[champu 1]

kelpdiver

***I'll share a few numbers from 2012 to put this in perspective. I live in California, I do okay but wouldn't qualify as "rich", I'm a W-2 employee, file single, and I own a 1700 sq ft townhouse.

Last year, after all the dust settled, my federal tax bill including income and my portion of medicare and fed oasdi was $X. My California tax bill including income, oasdi, property tax, and vehicle registration was about 0.75 * $X. The sales tax in this and surrounding towns is 9%. I honestly couldn't tell you off hand how much I spent last year that was subject to sales tax, but I would estimate somewhere between 0.1 and 0.15 * $X paid in sales taxes.

So my total state burden was about 85% to 90% of my total federal burden.

I was going to say this seems wildly off, but then I added my (new) property tax build to the totals and it seems in the ballpark. and this is before I factor in the new fed deductions for interest and property tax.

That said, what would the ratio be if you couldn't deduct state income and property taxes as well as the loan interest?

Any deductions you remove will cause federal to pull away from state because of the difference in marginal rates.

Full disclosure though, this calculation looks a lot different in 2013... For starters, the fed oasdi holday lapsed so that makes $X bigger. Also I refinanced at the end of last year and successfully petitioned down my assessed property value so I will be deducting quite a bit less interest and property taxes next year (making $X bigger still, and my California burden a bit smaller.)

So for 2013 my state burden will be between 66% and 70% of my total federal burden. (again, largely due to paying more to the feds.)

[LyraM45 0]

lawrocket

Okay. I'll strip it down.

How are jobs "created?" Answer me and tell me how full employment can be obtained. I.e., let's give until jan. 1, 2015. How do we get full employment by then?

Well, in the context of 2003-2008 under bush, I'd say an awful lot of jobs were created through things post 9/11: TSA, military, contracts, manufacturing, etc, etc.

Apologies for the spelling (and grammar).... I got a B.S, not a B.A. :)

[kelpdiver 2]

LyraM45

Well, in the context of 2003-2008 under bush, I'd say an awful lot of jobs were created through things post 9/11: TSA, military, contracts, manufacturing, etc, etc.

the second (and third, I dare say) tech booms had little to do with 9/11. Web 2.0 and the low cost of startups with cloud services have fought through the 2008 blowup nicely. This really started going around 2006...since then, good people have generally been able to get work. Same with the ongoing biotech realm, the other big job producer in the San Francisco region.

[rehmwa 2]

LyraM45

***Okay. I'll strip it down.

How are jobs "created?" Answer me and tell me how full employment can be obtained. I.e., let's give until jan. 1, 2015. How do we get full employment by then?

Well, in the context of 2003-2008 under bush, I'd say an awful lot of jobs were created through things post 9/11: TSA, military, contracts, manufacturing, etc, etc.

true, Bush was a very effective Liberal

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants