Hiking the gas tax drives out growth
There’s simply no excuse for this. California’s newest $5 billion taxpayer siphon could easily have been negated had the state tried to retain the one million residents who have packed up and left since 2004, not to mention the 10,000 businesses that have bolted or restricted commerce since 2008. That exodus hits the economy hard, yet over the last seven years state spending is up 53% under the misleadership of Gov. Jerry Brown. And as IBD notes, the problem isn’t being handled. Billions of dollars in previous tax increases that should be going toward taming the infrastructure bugaboo are going elsewhere instead. This one appears to be a ruse as well. And Reason’s Steven Greenhut pinpoints why: “Californians should see it as a pension tax, given the extra money plugs a hole caused by growing retirement payments to public employees.”
