Innovators!

California is unabashedly a state of innovators! Google? Started here. Yahoo? Yep. That woman that just spat out 8tuplets and the doctor that impregnated her with zygotes 7 thru 14? Uh-huh.. Calfornians! I'm misty with pride.

And now we're doing some impressive work innovating on taxes. Yes, people.. California is on fire with great ideas for 'fixing' their budget crisis. And a doosey that crisis is. At present the state is spending $10 for every $6 of 'revenue'. 'Revenue' - that's our innovative name for the product of using the power of the state to confiscate money from individuals and business for the legislature to spend.

Of course we could have opted for old ideas like balancing our budget. Or perhaps we could save for a rainy day. Or here's a good 'ol idea that has gone by the wayside: only offering services that we can afford. Nahh... those ideas are for states like Arkansas. You know.. second tier states. Not innovators like California.

So here's what we've come up with! Okay jealous states... you can read this list but don't try to implement these policies without parental supervision!

Taxing Taxes!
This is truly a superior idea derived from exhaustion. Our legislatures have been working hard. I just read an article that says they have been working for 3 whole days nonstop. Can you imagine it? State employees working three whole days in a row - including a weekend day?

Well, simply put they're exhausted. It is downright tiring to have to conceive of new things to tax. They came up with all the old standards... like increasing the gas tax.. increasing car registration fees.. increasing the state sales tax (or as I am referring to it forevermore.. the state sales 'tithe' since it is almost 10% now). But that just wasn't enough. No. When you have a $42 Billion budget crisis you have to innovate!

So what's a tired legislator to do? Lay people off? Reduce state services? Reduce the number of paid holidays for state employees (currently 14 or more than twice the 6 the general public gets)? Identify and reduce areas of inefficiency in government? Dis-allow the use of union labor to provide government services? People... those are not innovative ideas. Any two-bit business owner knows that to balance a budget you have to align spending with your expected revenues and pay employees market wages. Heck, we could get the owner of a local Pizza Hut to do that kind of thing. We need innovation!

But we're tired. Sooooo tired. People - it is exhausting writing bills for 36 million people to pay. Exhausting.

That's when the lighbulb went on. Yreka! One of the legislatures screamed. 'Let's tax our taxes!' And then the lightbulbs went on across the state legislative chambers. The 'ah-ha' moment had arrived with fury.

So, here's what they decided to do... place a 'surchange on California's income tax'. 'Huh?' you say. What's that? That's a tax on our income tax. Let me explain. Say you have an income tax system. You could change the income tax rates.. but that is an annnoying process requiring effort and communication with voters and messy stuff like that. So, what you do is simply say.. 'taxpayers... when you're done completing your taxes... just give us another 5%.' That's a surcharge on the income tax. Beautiful isn't it!

And it's a very 'extensible' idea as we say in the software world. It can be extended and applied, simply, to all sorts of additional taxes. So - here's some surcharges we can be looking forward to soon: A surcharge on Investment gains. A surcharge on business profits. A surcharge on passive income (rental property revenues). The possibilities are only limited by how many taxes we already have.. and that's a lot of possibilities!

Taxing Services!
Another truly superior idea is to tax services. You see, in most cases we tax stuff people buy(sales tithe), the work people put in to produce the stuff people buy (income taxes) and the profits derived from producing the stuff people buy (business taxes).

Well.. hello!! We're actively driving people out of the state in droves with our excrutiating business taxes and government regulation ( the 'hidden taxes' .. shhhh). That means revenue is down!

So, what's a state to do? Well, the innovators in our state legislature are all over this. They just figured out that the only thing people in California are bound to be doing at this point is providing services. Like doing surgery on a gerbil. Or tax preparation (a biggie!). You know.. using that 'ol noggin'.

And then came the second 'ah-ha' moment. 'Dude, we could tax people for, like, receiving services. You know... like pretty much any customer of anyone!

Whew!! That was a breath of fresh air. So, just when the actual product producers are leaving the state.. we're off and running on turning service providers into tax collection agents for the California State Treasury! Sweet. You provide a service.. start charging tax baby! When you're done performing surgery on that gerbil - tax your customer. When you're done carrying that plate to your customer's table.. tax your customer! Outstanding.

Holy cow! This is going to be BIG!


Okay.. Arkansas... I warned you. Just wait! This is all heading your direction.