[courtesy of California Progress Report]

How tax justice in California could erase deficit with $20 billion in new revenues

By Lenny Goldberg
Executive Director
California Tax Reform Association

Despite a huge budget deficit, California’s tax system leaves out opportunities to increase revenue through the closing of loopholes, exclusions, and the implementation of progressive taxation alternatives. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut billions in revenues and borrowed to cover the previous deficit, the burden of cuts was shifted to the state’s vital services, including education, health care, public safety and programs for the poor.

Though the state always faces deficit problems during an economic recession, the vast scope of this year’s $17.2 billion deficit stems directly from the governor’s cuts in revenue and the resulting costs of borrowing. So, where are the revenue sources to make up the difference?

Taxing oil shot down once

California is the only state in the country without a production tax on oil, and taxes oil far, far lower than any state — less than any place in the world our research shows. Two months ago, Assembly Democrats tried to do just this, but were shot down by Republican legislators.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By David Dayen
d-day

I want to discuss Barack Obama's speech on race and politics, but first I want to say that I have a problem with these expected blog posts on expected speeches that the dynamics of 21st-century campaigns demand. This election has turned into some kind of bizarre series of rituals, like an season of Greek theater where everybody knows the plot and the audience is left to judge the work on the presentation. The parade of comment, counter-comment, conference call about comment, distancing from comment, and major speech incorporating remarks about comment is the real distraction in this campaign, diverting from a looming economic recession (a recession at BEST) and a tragic stalemate in Iraq. Rarely does anything good for the country come out of this exchange.

Furthermore, I'm sick and tired of this "action figure" conservatism where a bunch of stay-at-home bloggers decide for others what they should do in particular situations. "If I were Obama, I would have stood up during the sermon and fired a poison dart at Rev. Wright and talked about the need to cut the capital gains tax!" The imagined fantasies of these clowns resemble a Chuck Norris movie, when the realities involve far more Cheetos and nasal spray.