Live data from Hacker News

California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

taxfoundation.org

271–280 of 363 posts

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#271
post #2

This is insane. People are already leaving the states in droves. If this passes they are literally shooting themselves in the foot.

Me and my Wife are already fed up with the high taxes here in CA currently and we get pretty much nothing for them. We are already planning on leaving CA for good as it makes zero financial sense given we can both work anywhere we want. This potential tax hike would probably be the proverbial "nail in the coffin" to the state of CA. Just for us we would see our taxes go up the equivelent of doubling our mortgage paym…

I don't understand this sentiment.

If your net take-home pay goes up (or even stays the same), why would you care if the line item called "CA tax" goes up while the line item called "health insurance payment" goes to zero?

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#272

Thank you California! I now know where I will be spending the years of my life when I have no income and insanely high medical bills. Gonna stick in PA with our 3.07% while I am earning bank and healthy though.

Agreed. Very unfortunately, this is why these solutions can't work at the state level. It needs to be country-wide for it to work.

Same with e.g. homelessness solutions.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#273
post #123
post #5

I can't imagine something like this working out well here. In the current environment, I'd imagine a big chunk of the tech force that can work remotely will simply leave the state. This would devastate the states income tax collection.

Like most states, nonresidents owe California tax on income from California sources.

No, like most states, nonresidents owe California tax on income earned from work in the state, regardless of the source, not based on the source of the income.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#274
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What your employer obliges you to pay directly is arbitrary. What matters is what percentage of your total compensation from your employer is healthcare costs. I highly doubt that number is only 2.5%.

Data point: I just switched from FTE to unemployed (likely transitioning to retirement) and am leveraging COBRA to pay in full to retain my former employer's High Deductible Anthem PPO plan (plus dental plan and VSP) for a family of 4. The COBRA monthly pricetag is $2093. While employed (at this Fortune 300 company's San Jose, CA office), I was paying $425 per month out of pocket for the same set of plans.

This would seem to line up well with this bls data from March of 2020 [1], which shows an average split of ~20-25% employee to 75-80% employer.

[1] https://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/factsheet/medical-care-premiums-...

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#275
post #20

This will be one of the easiest “No” votes I’ll have ever filled out on my ballot. For those following along at home, this resolution would take the form of a Constitutional Amendment, if passed by Californians on the ballot that would raise per household taxes by $12,500/year. The important thing here is that Californians have to agree to pass it.

Since my current health insurance (blue shield) costs ~$30K/year, that would be a huge win.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#276

If this happens, I will most certainly leave the state. I mean this is ridiculous. These people have consistently shown that their ability to spend our tax dollars is literal dog shit. People and companies are leaving the state in droves. And their response is to literally double taxes?

[deleted]

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#277
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me and my Wife are already fed up with the high taxes here in CA currently and we get pretty much nothing for them. We are already planning on leaving CA for good as it makes zero financial sense given we can both work anywhere we want. This potential tax hike would probably be the proverbial "nail in the coffin" to the state of CA. Just for us we would see our taxes go up the equivelent of doubling our mortgage paym…

I don't understand this sentiment. If your net take-home pay goes up (or even stays the same), why would you care if the line item called "CA tax" goes up while the line item called "health insurance payment" goes to zero?

Because my line item - insurance payment is only $2350 out of pocket me for the year, the tax hike according to what we make (delta to our current taxes) would equate to a years worth of mortgage payments, which is a gigantic difference. In addition california already has a low income health plan called "covered california" so low income families are already covered without the need for doubling taxes.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#278
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this sentiment. If your net take-home pay goes up (or even stays the same), why would you care if the line item called "CA tax" goes up while the line item called "health insurance payment" goes to zero?

Because my line item - insurance payment is only $2350 out of pocket me for the year, the tax hike according to what we make (delta to our current taxes) would equate to a years worth of mortgage payments, which is a gigantic difference. In addition california already has a low income health plan called "covered california" so low income families are already covered without the need for doubling taxes.

> addition california already has a low income health plan called "covered california"

Covered CA is the ACA exchange, not a public low-income plan.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#280
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this sentiment. If your net take-home pay goes up (or even stays the same), why would you care if the line item called "CA tax" goes up while the line item called "health insurance payment" goes to zero?

Because my line item - insurance payment is only $2350 out of pocket me for the year, the tax hike according to what we make (delta to our current taxes) would equate to a years worth of mortgage payments, which is a gigantic difference. In addition california already has a low income health plan called "covered california" so low income families are already covered without the need for doubling taxes.

Well that is a remarkably cheap health insurance, congratulations.

Mine (blue shield from a silicon valley employer) is more than that (~$2500) every month.

Post reply on HN