SOUNDING OFF:

I remember the day like it was yesterday.

I fought my way through a late November, zero-degree ice storm and eight foot snow drifts to reach Lambert Field in St. Louis so I could catch a flight to LAX. I was excited. My first visit to Southern California!

I would not be disappointed. The 727’s cabin door opened and I stood there transfixed; palm trees swaying in the distance, bright, hazy sunshine, 76 degrees, a breeze and about 35% humidity. I realized that day that I was a California boy born by a cosmic accident somewhere else. I immediately dedicated myself to finding a way to relocate to this wonderful land. Less than a year later my dream would be realized.

Orange County 30 years ago was a remarkable place. It was quiet, laid-back and giving off an almost rural vibe. South Coast Plaza was one tall white hotel poking up out of the orange groves. South of there were oranges on both sides of the 405 Freeway for miles. Taxes weren’t objectionable. Crime was not a major concern. Proposition 13 gave me reason to believe I’d actually be able to pay for and live in my home long-term. Orange County truly was a paradise.

Flash forward to Summer 2008. California now has the highest income taxes in the nation. It has the highest sales tax rate and the highest gas tax in the west. It was just judged the 47th worst business tax climate in America. Our state’s corporate tax rate is 49% higher than the average rate paid in 30 other nations that California competes with. And in Sacramento, the leaches we’ve hired and sent there to represent us are past-due more than 45 days in contemplating how to fix the monumental deficit they’ve shoveled on us and our heirs. We’re more than $15 billion upside down, they tell us, or a number quite a bit larger than the gross national product of South Africa, Denmark or Holland.

Current thinking (an oxymoron?) is that a combination of borrowing several billion dollars (we’re at near junk bond status already), along with raising income tax on the “rich” by $8.2 billion, plus a “temporary” sales tax increase of 1%, just might solve the problem (is there anything more permanent than a temporary tax?).

The folks in the majority up there in Sacramento seem to actually believe they can hose us like this without any major blowback. Well folks, let me acquaint you with the law of unintended consequences. Because of initiative-mandated spending, the interest on a bunch more bond debt will take a big chunk out of our already minuscule discretionary spending for decades to come. This will make a continuing deficit likely well into the future.

Jacking up taxes on the “rich” to 12% (more than 2% higher than the No. 2 state), would undoubtedly result in an outmigration stampede. With the expiration of the “Bush tax cuts for the rich” in 2010, the highest marginal rate will return to 37%. Add 12% more as a penalty for living in the Golden State and earning a good living and you have 49%. Tack on another 8.75% on anything nice you might choose to purchase and you’re talking an almost 58% tax rate for upper income earners. And that’s before the myriad fees, excise and use taxes kick in.

All they have to do is move to Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico or Florida, or have their attorneys and accountants figure out a way to make it look like they did and they get an immediate 20% increase in income. The houses, cars, boats, planes and jewelry will be bought somewhere else. Corporations will move someplace else. The jobs will be created somewhere else. The taxes will be paid somewhere else. And the bright glow given off by California all these decades as a beacon to the world will be reduced through avarice and mismanagement to a dull, flinty glint.

And the worst part? This is all being done in our names, yours and mine. If that fact angers you, I suggest you give a shout out to your elected representatives up north before it’s too late.

What’s weather worth? I can tell you one thing for sure. It isn’t worth being milked like a dairy cow by a bunch of greedy, self-serving, dim bulb politicians. Have a nice day.

CHUCK CASSITY is a Costa Mesa resident.