Californians get little back for paying high taxes

from Dan WaltersCalMatters

This comment was originally posted by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Watt Avenue is one of several streets in Sacramento County named after famous inventors, in this case James Watt, the father of the steam engine.

Watt Avenue is also one of the busiest and most important arteries in the county, with nearly 100,000 cars per day crossing his bridge over the American River.

The north-south route spans nearly 30 miles, including a small extension with a different name. It has one of the few river crossings in Sacramento and is the only direct connection between two major east-west freeways, Interstate 80 and Highway 50.

Therefore, Watt not only serves local traffic, but carries many heavy trucks, including a steady stream of county-owned semis carrying trash from a transfer station to a landfill.

Not surprisingly, the high Watt load tends to beat the asphalt surface. The county has resurfaced some sections from time to time, but Watt remains one of the roughest places in the region.

Street and road conditions in Sacramento County are not the worst in the state, but they are significantly below those of all counties combined. 2023 survey commissioned by local authorities found – as evidenced by Watt’s uneven surface.

We Californians pay the highest taxes in the nationincluding various taxes, on the fuel for our vehicles, about 90 cents per gallon, and a substantial portion of this is distributed to local governments for road maintenance.

April is the month that state and local governments expect us to pay for the privilege of being Californians. April 10 is the deadline to pay six months of property taxes without penalty, and April 15 is the deadline to file federal and state income tax returns.

Therefore, it is a good time to assess whether the taxes we Californians pay—not just those on property and income, but year-round on sales and fuel—provide satisfactory levels of service.

The Washington-based Tax Foundation, in a new reportpegs Californians’ state and local tax burden at 13.5 percent of personal income, or $10,167 per person—fifth highest in the nation. That’s roughly $400 billion in taxes that those we elect into office must spend each year.

Whether we consider our return on that investment adequate is probably as individual as our fingerprints. But WalletHub, a website that researches personal finance issues, recently tried to calculate it objectively. California receives the second-lowest score in the nation, eclipsed only by New Mexico. New Hampshire scored the best, followed by Florida.

WalletHub’s research team calculated tax revenue per adult for each state and compared it to five categories of government services: education, health, public safety, economy and infrastructure combined with pollution.

Services in California were rated mediocre, 37^th generally with low scores for public safety, economy, infrastructure and pollution. However, the state’s high level of taxation, which reflects the Tax Foundation’s data, has sunk investment returns almost to the bottom.

No matter how politicians frame it, we Californians pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. And they could go even higher this year, like dozens of local authorities are asking their constituents to raise sales taxespromising better services in return, and as tax-raising measures await voter decisions in November.

Despite the tax burden, the state is dealing with multi-billion dollar budget deficitsdue to an overspending of its revenues, and lawmakers are under pressure to cover the shortfall with new corporate taxes.

ROI is almost never discussed. But it should be kept in mind as we consider pending tax measures and elections for governor and other state, local, legislative and congressional offices this year.

High taxes should provide us with smooth roads, efficient police and fire departments, high levels of education, reliable water supplies, and other efficient returns on our investments that New Hampshire and Florida residents obviously enjoy.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.