Wealth Tax. Constitutional Amendment and Statute.

If you have not yet heard of this, you will soon.

Look folks, I am not one to impetuously sound the 'Holy cow, this is full blown Socialism' alarm very often, but can you honesty describe this proposition any other way?

Imposes one-time tax of at least 55% on property exceeding $20 million of a California resident or held in California by nonresident. Imposes one-time tax (between 36.5% - 54.3%) on income exceeding $10 million when resident dies or leaves California. Imposes additional 17.5% tax on total incomes of taxpayers with income exceeding $150,000 if single, $250,000 if married; 35% if incomes exceed $350,000 if single, $500,000 if married.

Think about this for a minute. The State of California is going to confiscate 55% of your wealth if you own 20 million dollars worth of property. What exactly was the crime committed by these people to merit such a fine? Starting a business? Employing millions of Californians? Driving the California economy? Lending capital to small businesses? Giving millions to charity?

Oh, I get it they're rich. Everyone knows rich people made their money by screwing the little guy and keeping them down, right?

Move down to next tax, an estate tax of 36% - 54% on anyone who has income of 10 million dollars and suffers the unfortunate fate of dying within the Golden State. After all, you have already paid Federal and State income taxes on that wealth, why not let the State take half of your remaining assets before they put you in the ground? And don't even think of trying to sneak over the border into Nevada with your money, this is one border they will ruthlessly enforce.

Now for the last tax, let's slap a permanent 17% State income tax over the existing State income tax of 9.3 % for those who make 150K a year single, 250K married. Sounds great, where do I sign up?

Let me give you an even scarier proposition; Barack Obama wins in November.
Holy cow? No, Holy Crap!

Let's say you own a small business in Woodland, maybe you employ 8-12 employees. Lets say your business is established and doing well, you and your spouse still work 60 - 70 hours a week. After payroll, worker's comp, raw material costs, city fees, rent, insurance, advertising and about three hundred and fifty other bills you pay each month, you earn 255,000 a year. Not a bad living.

You had to take out a third mortgage on your house to start you business and work 10 months without a day off before you could write yourself a paycheck, but you made it through the rough times and you have hired some really great people. They depend on you so they can pay their bills and get ahead. Your kids are growing up fast and you wish you could spend more time with them, maybe if things get a little better with the bottom line, you can hire a full time, experienced general manger.

Now for the good news. You get to pay the additional taxes in California's proposed new wealth tax, and President Barack Obama is not only going to raise your federal income tax, but you will be paying social security tax on all of your income as he eliminates the cap as it currently stands at taxing the first 100,000. I am not a CPA, unlike the guy who wrote the proposition, but I would estimate you total tax burden would go from around 40% to well over 65%.

You are one doing the work, you are one paying the bills, employing your neighbors, and staying awake at night trying to figure out how you are ever going to pay off all this debt. The government is going to take, there is no better word for it, take 65% of your income?

What are they going to do with it?

Well, as for the California proposition, they want to buy common shares of, wait for it, EXXON/MOBILE!

They want to buy a significant portion of other companies as well, Chevron, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup etc. Why? To control these corporations and make them stop Global Warming!

Oh, and here is the kicker, they will, not propose but they will "Drain and restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural condition circa the beginning of the 20th century". I hope the people in San Francisco start building a desalination plant real soon, they will get awful thirsty when the Hetch Hetchy dam is gone.

What about the rest of the increased tax burden burden you will pay? What are they going to do with that? Waste a quarter of it right off the bat, spend another quarter of it on things that mean nothing to you and your family, and the other half will actually go to keeping the roads paved, ( yea right) maintaining a standing army, delivering the mail and other useful functions.

If you think there is nothing wrong with this tax-the-rich until they die, and then a little more proposition, I have news for you.

You my friend are a socialist.

Did you just hear a bunch of moving trucks start up? Good luck with California's revenues when all the business owners and wealthy taxpayers get out of dodge..... Florida anyone?