VDH

Victor David Hanson skewers the student "protesters" and deftly handles the current budget issue in this soon to be broke (i.e. we already are) State in his recent Works & Days posting.


Protests everywhere…
In general now, University of California students are furious with tuition raises, rioting even at Berkeley. Teachers are angry about cutbacks. State employee unions blast the airways with ads complaining about a scarcity of funds.
So bear with me with a bit.
The cost to attend a University of California flagship campus — room, board, and tuition — is about a third of what is charged by a private, comparable institution in California like Stanford or USC — roughly some $15-20,000 in total costs versus around $50,000 per year. Public higher education is a good deal, in other words.
California public school teachers make on average the highest salaries in the United States, several thousands higher than those in Massachusetts or Connecticut, and about $20,000 more a year than in a place like Maine or Kansas. On average, government employees, state and federal, nationwide make about 50% more (in salary, pension, and benefits) than their counterparts in the private sector. I realize that if one reaches the very top of private enterprise, one can make more than a high-earning state or federal bureaucrat; but, in general, across the spectrum, it is far preferable to work for government, besides the job security, higher pension, and better working conditions.
I won’t quote all the statistics, but again, in general, California employees make considerably more on average than other state employees elsewhere.  The result is that the current furious state employee is, in essence, saying, “All you lower-paid and unemployed taxpayers, now you better listen up: you must pay more taxes, even  beyond the current highest rate in the nation, so that I, the far better paid and pensioned employee than you, can continue unquestioned in my current, far more important job.”
No more juice to squeeze…
On the tax side, California has the highest income tax rates in the country. Its gasoline and sales taxes are also the steepest. Prop 13 limitations keep  the rates of property taxes competitive with other states, but the assessments on property are so high in California that often homeowners pay almost the same as many with lower real rates elsewhere. Some 3,500 Californians, mostly on the higher end of the income spectrum, are believed to be leaving per week, mostly fleeing to low or no-income-tax states. I assume their thinking is something like, “I can save $20,000 a year in taxes and my children won’t be going to public schools that score 46-48^th in national rankings of the states in math and science.”

That last option is has looked good to the olde Rumbear for a while now.  Mrs. Rumbear...not so much.  That said, don't look for the address to change anytime soon!