Letters to the Editor: L.A. County voters made a big mistake passing Measure A in November: Let’s Vote
L.A. County voters made a big mistake passing Measure A in November: Let’s Vote
I don’t think Measure A, the tax increase on the mega-rich that the county council has been promising for years, is going to pass. (I voted no.) But, for the sake of discussion, let’s say that it passes. And that the mega-rich, who have bought the elected officials they need to pay for their excesses, pass the costs on to you, the people.
It doesn’t take much math to foresee this: The tax (about $8.5 billion in 2015 dollars), would equal $100,000 per person on average. In other words, you’d wind up paying approximately the same percentage of your income (in the 10%-20% range) for your taxes each year as someone earning $60,000 receives in health insurance. And this tax would not discriminate based on income of people who are in or out of the country.
As L.A. County’s budget problems worsened and the spending on this tax was ratcheted up, the people who were on the losing end of the bargain were the mega-rich that the county council was seeking to tax to pay down its mounting debt and pay for the mega-rich pensions (not) that they’d won from state lawmakers.
Those who are wealthy are not people who pay taxes. They pay rents. Their wealth is not derived from anything you do. And they don’t pay taxes because they are not the taxpayers. They pay their taxes because they get all of the benefits from the state, local/city government that they pay taxes in order to enjoy.
If you accept that reality, then you should support Measure A because it is one way to level the playing field and make the city council that pays for all of the benefits and services of those that aren’t taxpayers, pay for the cost of the services and benefits they get while those that pay no taxes for the services and benefits they get