Big Day for Californians

[drbill]

Regarding Arnold's alleged groping, I am not quick to judge since I was the victim of a false sexual harrassment charge. The woman involved worked for me and had been a non-producer for the entire three years of my tenure as her boss. The president of the organization admitted that she and the past president had known she was not up to the job when they hired her 11 years previously (yet did nothing about it).

When the employee realized that I was quite disappointed in her "work," she leveled the charge and based on our company policy it had to be investigated. Every other female employee who heard about the charges offered to testify on my behalf if she brought it to court. Almost everyone saw through her.

So false charges can easily be brought up and I won't be quick to judge Arnold on that one. However he acknowledged the possibility early in his campaign and admitted "where there's smoke there's fire" prior to his admission and public apology. The number of accusers suggest there may well be truth to this.

As bad as that is, I think there could be worse things (relative to the scale of people affected) if certain other assumptions are true. We'll have to wait to see if they prove false... or true.

There's always a bright side... go Cubbies (12-2 over the Marlins as I write).

Dr. Bill

 

[Dryglove]

drbill once bubbled...
lal7176- How does the fact that (some) Indian tribes are no longer poor lead to negating the treaties we signed with them when WE made them poor by taking away their resource base? Doesn't make logical sense to me.

Them not paying taxes makes no logical sense to me so you keep voting for people like bustamante who want to tax the crap out of you and not do nothing about the politicians doing the excessive spending. Im personally tired of paying higher taxes each year and think some fresh meat like arnold( a non career politician who cant be bought) will be good. If he doesnt do as he says i very seriously doubt he could be as big of a flop as davis.

 

[Arnaud]

lal7176 once bubbled...


... Im personally tired of paying higher taxes each year...

Taxes in California can only be raised by a 2/3 majority. They have not been raised in a long while. Remember the last budget impasse?

Bottom line is if Ah-Nold can't raise the taxes, if he repeals the DMV fee hike and doesn't touch education (which has been already been severely battered), every remaining service provided by the State will face some serious shrinkage.

As to the Indian gaming, it was an easy scapegoat during the campaign. Now, the campaign is over...

 

[PhotoTJ]

O-ring once bubbled...

Why do you think most Americans (most = majority) call him the Commander in Thief?

He's an idiot...probably the biggest one in history to reside in the White House.

You'll find that most people tend to hang with people of like political interests. So, when you say 'most Americans', what you are actually saying is 'most people I know'

I found myself in the curious position of having met and spent some time with both Bush and Gore, before either was running. W. at a couple of ball games, (owners box), and Al on the way down to the South Pole. (8 hour flight) Don't kid yourself, both of them are plenty smart.

 

[RichLockyer]

norcaldiver once bubbled...
Do your homework, it's not a tax, it's always been there. It's called a VLF, Vehicle License Fee. We have just been getting a rebate of 2/3. Look up AB2167 of 1998. It's written into the bill that the rebate would go away if the state needed money.

Man you hollywood sheep piss me off.

It has not always been there. It was put in place under the Dukmejian administration. As far as whether or not to call it a tax, it is admitted right on the DMV paperwork... "Vehicle Licensing Fee in lieu of a Personal Property Tax".
It was illegal from the start, as it was imposed without a 2/3 vote of the legislature or a vote of the people, but it was called a "fee" instead of a "tax" to it skated through.

It only allows 10% depreciation of your vehicle's value every year.
After 5 years, can you sell your car for 50% of what you paid for it? I don't think so.


Edit: It was not implemented in the 1980s... it was implemented in 1935.

 

[RichLockyer]

O-ring once bubbled...
Where does the ever-intellectual Arnold plan to get the dough to cover the hole car tax will leave in the budget?

Maybe from the new casino industry that had bought it's way through the previous administrations with a tax-exempt status?

Arnold is asking for a 25% tax, and in exchange will ease regulations on opening new casinos. Everyone wins.

 

[RichLockyer]

norcaldiver once bubbled...
Actually, what scares the carp out of me most of all...

Larry Flynt - 15,454 - 7th Place
Gary Coleman - 12,683 - 8th Place
Mary 'Mary Carey' Cook - 10,110 - 10th Place
Leo Gallagher - 4,862 - 16th Place
Issa-he got 400+ votes and he had withdrawn...along with Huffington(i think) and she got 42,000+ votes.

Sorry... wrong Issa. That's "S. Issa"... not the guy who started it all and backed out (Daryl didn't appear on the ballot).

Ya... it's really sad to see those who backed out still getting votes. You can look at it two ways... on the positive side, the people voted for who they truly felt was the best person for the job, no matter whether or not they had a chance at winning.

On the negative side, people thought it was a complete joke (it was obvious that many on the ballot viewed it that way), or they were simply completely uninformed and voted eeny-meeny-miney-moe.

And of course, all of the above except for Gallagher and Issa got more than Bill Simon.

 

[Mo2vation]

Spend less - we got that one.

Make more - hmmm.... that's a tough one.

* There is the Car TAX / VLF / FEE / LMNO.

* He can do what Buffet suggested, and raise property tax (prepare for another recall in Spring...)

* We can grow MORE strawberries, oranges, lettuice and "cabbage..."

OR - as the Governator has suggested again as recently as last night, we can create a more business-friendly environment and actually make more the old fashioned way - by creating jobs in Caleeeeefornya (during the rising economy: see DJ / S&P) to lure businesses to the Left Coast.

More businesses = more jobs = making more without actually raising taxes significantly....

This is done by making our state more attractive to businesses. This is gonna be tough, for as we all know, in CA, what keeps them out:

#1 - Workmans Comp
#2 - EPA
#3 - Unfriendly business tax restrictions

Workmans Comp is as sticky an issue here as anywhere else. There is more rip off of the WC system in California than anwehere else I once read. Ironically, a huge percentage of that is from inside the medical industry - the rest is joe six-pack leveraging the system to go fishing (or diving)

EPA - woah. This will be fun. As our air is actually getting cleaner (remember the 70's???) this will be a hot issue, I'm sure. Think alternative fuel to become a familiar mantra, and the selling of "pollution credits" to re-emerge

Business-friendly tax environment....uh, can you say Indian Gaming? That's a pretty friendly environment. This will get sticky too.

Its gonna take awhile to fix this.

K

 

[drbill]

Does anyone reading this thread (RichLockyer perhaps) actually know if the state can legally (based on federal law) tax Indian gaming? If other states do, I guess we may also be able to.

When I referred to the voters accepting some of the blame, I was referring to the additional spending mandated by voter initiatives. Here we had the direct "opportunity" to increase spending ourselves and should take some of the blame for the current predicament.

As for property taxes, I'm of mixed opinion on this one. I bought a condo five years ago for $250,000 and pay about $2,700 in general taxes on it. I have a friend who has owned her home for a long time. It is worth $1.8M and she only pays about $900. Under Prop 13 my tax liability far exceeds hers. If we leveled the playing field, I should pay less and she more. On the other hand, my condo has appreciated $200K in those five years so I might be paying taxes on the new assessed value each year.

Dr. Bill

 

[Arnaud]

There was an interesting article about levying taxes on Indian tribes in the NY Times. The issue came up because of tobacco sales.

The short answer is that taxes can be levied but the government has no recourse available in case of non payment.

So, in the case of gaming, the only way that the casinos could be actually taxed is if they would agree to it, as part of an agreement (compact) with the State. Obviously, they would have to get some benefits out of the deal... This is not just a matter of the government deciding unilaterally to raise or create new taxes.