Now California wants a wealth tax.

Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and many other states will gladly welcome "the rich" and everyone else who will be fleeing that state as a result.

This paragraph from Zerohedge says it all about Democrat policies in that state on budgetary items: 

ACA 3 begins with six WHEREAS clauses including that California has long-term needs that are not being met by existing revenue sources; wealth inequality among state residents has increased dramatically; a tax on extreme wealth will restore fairness to California’s tax system and raise significant revenue to meet new and existing urgent needs; and, the State’s appropriations limit needs to be updated so that it also permits the state and local government to meet their basic obligations in a changing and more challenging world.

California and other states run by Democrats always talk about wealth inequality, yet their high tax rates do nothing to reduce inequality. Their policies essentially are meant to keep the poor and middle-class dependent on the government instead of giving their citizens the opportunity to move up the economic ladder. 

Florida and California are respective examples of how to run a state and how not to.

California taxes the rich to the hilt and Florida has no state income tax.

California gets 70% of its revenue from income taxes and the top 1% pay fifty percent.  The more they try to suck out of the rich, the more likely the rich are to move. When stock and real estate prices drop and/or the rich move in response, (because they have options), the worse shape California and other high tax states get.

Their solution is not to change their ways or to cut expenses, their reaction is to look for more taxes and fees and the destructive cycle continues. It is a simple concept that most of the media and other Democrats seem confused by.

If a person’s net pay doesn’t cover their expenses, can they just go to their employer to beg for a raise or do they have to cut their costs or run up debt?

Why don’t government entities ever seem to cut costs?

The Outlook for State Budgets Heading Into 2023

California lawmakers, meanwhile, must figure out how to bridge a $24 billion gap in their upcoming budget negotiations. The state’s overall expenditures for that year are $226 billion.

The Golden State depends on personal income taxes for 70% of its revenues, and half of that money comes from the top 1% of wealthy taxpayers. They pay most of their income taxes on capital gains, particularly when companies go public. But the number of initial public offerings in California went from about 80 through September of 2021 to nine in the same period this year, Petek said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a law this month to give frequent drivers of the state’s toll roads a reprieve. The law could cost up to $500 million, but the state projected a surplus of $21 billion this summer.

The three states that the most people are moving away from are:

California

New York

Illinois

And they all reelected Democrat governors and Democrat legislatures. They all have very high taxes.

For example, the Illinois income tax on individuals is not real high but the state's property taxes, motor fuel taxes, and sales taxes are very high.

And the three states the most people are moving to are:

Texas

Florida

South Carolina.

Texas and Florida have no income taxes. South Carolina has a progressive income tax from zero to 7%, but some of the lowest property taxes in the country.

All three of the states people are moving to are run by Republicans.

Another thing about the three states that people are moving from is they are not right to work states while the states they are moving to are right to work states. They are very welcoming to businesses.

Democrats claim to be a party that is open to all, but their policies show they are frequently against freedom of choice, as in right to work or with school vouchers.

Will Democrats ever learn and pattern their policies after states that do better? I doubt it. As long as most of the media is campaigning for Democrat, why would they?

Jack Hellner is a certified public accountant specializing in business tax matters.

Image: WikiIdeas1, via Wikimedia Commons // CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication