Here is VDH's thumbnail sketch of the State of California:
I think the wretched state of California, now looking at a fiscal
disaster of roughly a $20-30 billion annual shortfall, should be a
wake-up call for the Obama administration. Whatever California is doing
— please don't follow suit!
With proposed increases, we will
have the highest sales taxes (ca. 9%) in the nation, the highest state
income taxes (10+%), and probably the lowest thresholds to get into
those top brackets — and yet only about 380,000 Californians pay 40% of
the aggregate income tax revenue.
In exchange, our schools,
roads, airports, hospitals, and police are, to use a euphemism, not
competitive. The CSU campuses make up the largest university system in
the world, with the largest unionized faculty, and yet nearly 50% of
entering freshman must take mandatory remedial math and English
courses. We don't utilize our ample energy, mineral, and timber
resources, but