TAXATION

By Ronald T "Ron" Drioane

Its OUR money. It's time to put the legislature on a 12 step program or some sort of cure for their addiction to our money.

The attitude in Sacramento seems to be that they are in control of your earnings and will "allow" you to only keep a portion of it. They have the horse pushing the cart, not pulling it. The ever increasing demand for "more money" means that you have to work until June before you are "allowed" to keep a dime. That means that you have less money for education of your children, less money for healthcare or insurance, less money to save for your retirement, less money for you to enjoy your life. Ronald Reagan described government's addiction to our earnings as being like a baby, "An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

The Democrats, now that they are in control of the legislative and executive branches of the state government, act as though they have more right to your money than you do. They want to spend it on important items like a corps of monitors that will check service station restrooms to make sure they're clean. Unfortunately the silliness doesn't stop there.

The Republicans have thundered about how they want to decrease government and decrease spending, yet budgets rose markedly when they were in control. The reality was they just felt as though your money needed to be spent somewhere else. The reality is that government grew under Republican control also.

Its time for the citizens to intervene and force the out-of-control tax money addicts in Sacramento to "take the cure". The budgets of the ever-growing state agencies and money pits don't need to be trimmed. They need a chainsaw taken to them. Its time to put principled representatives in the Assembly who will just say "no" to increased spending and have the courage to wean government away from your earnings.

There will be a hue and cry from those who will no longer suckle voraciously the milk of tax money. The reality is that government does not produce. It only interferes with production by draining available capital or by creating a morass of regulation and regulators that inhibit productivity to justify their existence. They have better retirement plans, better insurance, better vacation plans than the vast majority of small business and their employees that make up the majority of the taxpayers in the State of California. Too often the coerced tribute from the fruits of our labor are used against us via regulation and nuisance laws.

The state government needs to be placed on tax rationing. The people need to have representatives that have the courage to face large business interests and special advocacy interests and say "no". The only way that we can hope to regain control of spending is to markedly slash taxes and force the state government to live within its means.

Taxes need to be reduced by at least 50% on all levels over a five year period. When the accounting manipulators start crying we have to have the courage to say..."you'll just have to make do". After all, thats what they expect you to do with the ever decreasing share of your earnings they "allow" you to keep after forcing you to contribute to their schemes and poor management with your taxes.