California Tax Deluge Starts this June

This is a guest post from Warner Todd Houston:

Hold onto your wallet, California. The spending lobby is making another play for more of your money this election year… as if you don't give enough already.

As the Sacramento Bee reports, a trio of tax-hikes are jockeying for position on the November ballot. Each has a powerful cadre of backers and each seeks either new income taxes or sales taxes on California’s already stressed population. At a time when record numbers of Californians are out of work, the last thing struggling families around the state need is to send more of their money to support Sacramento’s dysfunction.

Yet while the massive tax-grabs on the November ballot are getting much of the attention, a nearly $1 billion tax hike has snuck its way onto the June ballot. Proposition 29, the so-called California Cancer Research Act, raises taxes to create an $855 million new spending program that duplicates work already done by existing agencies. The poorly written measure even allows money raised in California to be spent outside the state. That means California tax-dollars could literally be shipped out of state at a time when critical public services like schools and police are being threatened with cuts.

Raising taxes on families and businesses that are struggling to pay the bills makes no sense during these tough economic times. California voters need to send a message to the spending lobby and vote down these ill-advised tax hikes.