Will California become America's first failed state?

I work for the State of California.

In fact, I work for one of the State's tax agencies (in the interests of "Checks and Balances", there are three separate departmaents charged with the collection of different taxes).



Let's get one thing straight; so-called "illegal immigrants" ARE NOT! the cause, or even a major contributor to, the State's current financial problems.


The Fact is, undocumented, or "illegal" workers are a Key component of the State's economy, without whom the State's economy would NEVER have achieved its, once lofty, world status.


The Fact is, illegal workers Do Pay Taxes! just like every other citizen of the State, through payroll deduction and sales taxes.


Now let me be clear here: The law in California (state and federal) requires that withholding for Personal Income Tax be deducted from a worker's pay, if the worker makes over a certain amount (unless the worker is considered an "Independent Contractor" under Federal law, in which case, the worker him/herself is reposible for making quarterly estimate tax payments), by the employer.


Whether you're "legal" or not, if your wages fall below the minimum requirement, your employer is not required to collect for personal income tax, because you don't earn enough to owe any personal income tax.

Jobs that pay these kinds of low wages are the "scutt jobs" that only the desparate seek, the jobs that many immigrants, by necessity, gravitate to.


So in most cases, it is up to the employer to collect for state personal tax. If the employer is remiss in this duty, it is not the fault of the employee; especially if the employee, undocumented, possibly unfamiliar with either language or tax law (how many of You can say that you are competent with regard to the requirements and details of income tax law?), is fearful of losing his/her job if seen as a "trouble-maker" by holding the employer to the law.


Yes, it is the illegals who pay their taxes. It is you legal citizens who are the prime tax evaders.

It is the employers who "pay under the table" to avoid employment taxation and facilitate their "Creative Bookkeeping" to understate income and profit so as to evade proper taxation. It's you "law-abiding citizens" who buy their luxury goods over the internet and/or in another state to avoid sales tax.

You all set such fine examples of Good Citizenship.


In my experience (more than a decade) when an illegal (as identified by a fake social Security Number) is contacted about a tax debt, he is usually only too glad to pay his debt as quickly as possible. I have, in fact, been often struck by the fact that it seems almost a matter of honor, amoung those of questionable documentation, to be un-indebted to the State.


Sad to say that no such appearance of honor seems to exist amoung the so-called well to do citizens who, with foul mouths that would stun the most seasoned sailor, express their shock and indignatoion at the injustice of being penalized for paying their taxes six months late, if they've filed at all.

No, Miss Rich-B***h, you are Not "entitled" to a waiver of the penalties because you were too busy to talk to you CPA about filing your return!




California is in the financial state its in because people are Stupid!


Republicans and Democrats, liberal and conservative, Stupid Is As Stupid Does!


California has historically tied its revenues to sources that were subject to "Boom and Bust" cycles. Californians of all stripes unwisely bought into their hype, that the "Gravy Train" would never derail and it Never Rains In California!

California wanted to be everything to everybody, so Californians voted in favor of many social programs that made it the envy of the rest of the country; the cost of those programs was, at the time, easily balanced by the then booming economy.

California was the land of milk and honey. But as more and more people flocked to the State there was less and less room to raise the cows that made the milk and tract houses plowed under the flowers the bees needed to make the honey.


Deregulation of the State's energy program (under a Republican governor) indirectly lead to the Enron scandal, wherein much of California's budget surplus was "stolen" by a bunch of crooks in Texas.

The "DotCom" bubble-burst left California without a major source of revenue to rebuild its coffers, coffers once fed by agriculture now supplanted by shuttered high-tech firms whose manufacturing plants spawled across what was once farm-land.


And now, of late, the combined impact of the housing bust and the world financial crisis have shot the bottom out of California's boat.


California's biggest problem is that its economic model was based on a "More people = More money to Serve Those People" model.

Unfortunately, as California is learning, when the Money goes away, but the People stay, the model collapses.


Will California survive?

Well, the latest plan is to sell off many of the State's office buildings to raise immediate cash.

OK, so when you need cash you sell off some of the things you don't need or use, Right? That's what E-Bay is for.


But in California's case, the Governor (Republican) and the Legislature (mostly Democrats) have decided to sell off State buildings that are still in use (some of them relatively brand new!)...

...And then RENT THEM BACK FROM THEIR NEW OWNERS!


This is how you Save money? This is an example of the "high-level" reasoning that goes on within the halls of our Government?



Yes, I fear the State of California is Doomed.