Tax panel's plan would hit California hard

[question everything]

Exclaims the Orange County Register editorial

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_750000.php

Of course it will. And also New York and Illinois - when it also recommends eliminating the deductions for state taxes.

That's the idea, isn't it?

It does not matter that the economic engines are in the blue states: the businesses, the good jobs, good schools and, yes, high income, houses and accompanied taxes. All of which make these states "a donor state." But that's not enough. Might as well squeeze more money from them so that we can pump more federal money into the poor, ignorant people in the bible belt who can continue to wave the bible, sing hallelujah and vote for Rove's candidates.

Here are excerpts of the editorial

Friday, November 4, 2005
No break for California
Tax panel's mortgage-deduction limits would penalize the state's homeowners


California homeowners would be slammed hard by a tax "reform" plan cooked up by the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform.

(snip)

A rough comparison to the average regional price is the median price, which "for a home in California in September was $455,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems," the Associated Press reported Tuesday. In Orange County, the median price of an existing single-family detached home was $708,840 in September, reported the Oct. 26 Register.

(snip)

The panel's plan would hit California so hard that it is opposed even by state Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat running for governor who has proposed $10 billion in state tax increases. "Capping the mortgage deduction at a level below the median price of a California house would cost middle-class families billions more," he told the AP. When Democrats oppose a tax increase, you know it must be really bad.

(snip)