People want their government to serve them, not just the big corporations. Cutting services to people in order to keep taxes low on big tobacco and oil companies is a terrible way to run a state.State leaders must find more money
Our California Legislature really needs some budget advice from California's moms and dads. If my family was in a deep financial crisis that meant I couldn't provide my kids with the essentials they need, I would turn over every cushion looking for spare change, get a weekend job, or sell things in a yard sale. I would try almost anything to bring in more money.
While our state leaders have said these budget cuts are agonizing for them, they haven't yet considered every option to avoid or lessen them. Cuts to programs serving children, families, and the elderly could be avoided if legislators closed corporate tax loopholes, and raised taxes on items like tobacco and alcohol in order to raise revenue. According to recent public opinion polls, these revenue options are overwhelmingly popular while drastic cuts to social programs are not.
I urge our leadership to step up and do right by California's kids and families.
-----To be responsible, state must raise cash
Our California legislative leaders keep repeating that "all options are being considered" in an effort to balance our state's budget. Yet Sacramento has said very little about options to increase revenue. California families need our lawmakers to do better than just slash essential programs that we all need. To be responsible, we also need to raise revenue.
Truthfully: An 83 cent increase on tobacco taxes is far more responsible than cutting up to a million kids off health care coverage. And raising revenue on items such as tobacco and alcohol is popular, while making drastic cuts to social programs is not.
Before we start slashing billions of dollars from health care and education, let us truly examine all the options.
Citizens Ask For Responsible Budget
I came across two letters-to-the-editor in today's San Jose Mercury news, asking California's leaders to be responsible and include revenues instead of just cutting services to the people of the state. Here is what they wrote:
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Don't be fooled, taxpayers!!! Increased taxes levied against corporations are PASSED THROUGH to consumers!! Those taxes are paid by US....YOU and I! The state does not take the companies profits,....It takes OUR money. The taxes on a pack of cigarettes is paid by the CONSUMER....NOT the tobacco company. Big Tobacco will still rake in $80 billion dollars a year! REMEMBER THIS the next time you are asked to vote to increase taxes on big, bad business. You will likely be taxing yourself!!
I posted this in a comment a while back at http://www.speakoutca.org/weblog/2009/04/forbes-list-of.html#comment-92:
Corporate taxes are NOT paid by consumers. This is a myth, and believe me I know a little about it having run a consumer products company for many years. Let me list some of the reasons that companies cannot pass taxes on to consumers:
Taxes are calculated at the end of the (fiscal) year, based on profits. They are calculated after costs are deducted.
A company already charges the maximum it can for its products. A profitable company has already calculated the best price to charge. If it could raise prices to cover profits, profits would then be higher, necessitating an additional price rise, which would further increase profits ... which could necessitate a further price increase ... and you see how silly this gets.
A company that is not profitable (and therefore not taxed) would supposedly have lower prices because it wasn't passing taxes to customers, which would supposedly give it an advantage over the profitable company, which
If a company was already charging the max it could, adding something to the price to cover taxes would increase prices beyond what a competitor is charging, which would lower profits, which would eliminate the supposed need to raise prices.
And, of course, it would have to know in advance how profitable it is going to be to do any of these...
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