Red scare, pt.3

One more tidbit.

When Duf Sundheim mentioned that 50% of the income tax collected in California comes from 144,000 individuals, someone hooted and shouted, '...and it's not enough!"

Yes, Mr. Sundheim allowed, globalization has caused a problematic redistribution of wealth. Taxes can be used to compensate for that to some degree. No argument there. But when you're making obscene amounts of money, you don't make that much money every year. So, when half your tax base has wildly variable income, your state budget becomes wildly variable -- especially to predict.

He didn't suggest we shift more of the tax burden to the incomes of the rest of us; he pointed out that thanks to prop 13 our property taxes are pretty out of whack (and I have to say, I agree with him there). Property, unlike income, is pretty stable and has the benefit of being unable to move out of Cayman Islands when it strikes it rich. I don't want to kick little old ladies out of their homes, but the situation is dire. Without more money for education, we're screwing over generations of future Californians. Not to mention the rest of our social services.