Pirate's Cove

Wait a minute, I thought Democrats were in love with higher taxes? And that they thought paying more in taxes was patriotic? Oh, right, right, this only applies to Other People paying more in taxes. Here’s the LA Times Editorial Board

Losers in the GOP tax plan, blue states are unwisely turning to tax evasion

Congressional Republicans say the $1.5-trillion tax cut they passed last month will produce far more winners than losers, with the typical family of four earning the median income saving more than $2,000 this year. But the losers will be easier to find in states with high tax rates and elevated property values — like, say, California. (snip)

Similar tax hikes loom for residents of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and other high-tax, high-cost states. But state lawmakers aren’t ready to accept the hand that Congress has dealt; instead, they’re looking at ways to change their own tax codes to help their residents evade the higher federal levy.

Their outrage at the slap from Washington is understandable; it seems hardly coincidental that congressional Republicans would target a deduction that matters most to blue states. But rather than respond with real tax reforms of their own, they’re resorting to tax-dodge gimmickry.

That’s because these Blue state governments still want to hit their constituents up for money to fund redistribution projects and illegal aliens and such. So, what does the LATEB recommend?

In short, the new tax law produces winners and losers, as big changes in the tax code invariably do. With one of those changes hitting high-cost, high-tax states particularly hard, Californians are naturally suspicious and looking to fight back. There are reforms to the state tax code that could help reduce the maddening volatility of its revenue while also helping on the federal tax front — for example, by reducing income taxes in favor of new levies on carbon and services. But that’s not the approach taken by De León’s bill. Instead, it offers a clever tax-avoidance scheme, exploiting a loophole that Congress should have closed long ago to magically transform tax payments into “charitable contributions” — as if the state budget were a food bank or the Red Cross. Californians deserve a better tax overhaul than Congress just delivered, as do all Americans, but this isn’t the way to get one.

Got that? Replace one tax with another that will also increase Californian’s cost of living. Only in Liberal World. And let’s not forget that these “tax avoidance” schemes are really only going to help the rich. It’s really not something the middle and lower classes can take advantage of.