Alex
U.
10-4-2012
Inst.
S. Knapp
English
1A
NO ON PROPOSITION 30!
As we get closer to the November
ballot, proposition 30 has become a big decision to Californian’s, because the
time is running out, and they have to choose to earthier vote yes or no against
the proposition. The proposition is described as the education and public
safety act which the education programs of K-12 and community colleges will benefit
from. This will also guarantee funds for public safety such as Police, Fire,
Jailing, Courts, Social Services, Water Safety, and Health Services. The actions taking effect if this measure
passes will be raising personal income taxes by a percentage of 1-3 towards the
residents whom are making over 500k annually as a couple, or over 250k as
single taxpayers for a period of seven years. It also includes increasing the
sales tax by a quarter cent for all purchases inside the state of California
for the next four years. The estimated amount of money that will be raised annually
is about 5.4 billion dollars. The way they will split the revenues will be 89%
will go towards K-12 and 11% to higher education. Governor Jerry Brown has been speaking and threatening
the state residents about the outcomes that would take effect if voters reject
the proposition which are trigger cuts of about 5 billion dollars on the K-12
and higher education. This is a challenging vote because many voters feel like
the Governor is giving them no choice by saying “it’s earthier yes or will cut
that money from schools.” If this measure passes it will create some problems
for the high income families by having to pay more in their personal income
taxes as well as to lower income families by having to pay more in sales tax
all year round.
Arguments
against this proposition are very common because of many negativisms that rely
on the approval of this measure. According to the official voter guide of
California, they state that “Prop.30 allows the politicians to play a “shell
game” instead of providing new funding for schools.” They claim that the
politicians can take existing funds from schools and use it for other debts
they have, and after they collect the revenues from the proposition they will
just fill the hole that they already had dug. By this situation taking action
no new funds will be added, because of this gamble people are voting for. There
is no guarantee that all the money being collected will actually get to the
classrooms of our schools. Why doesn’t the government stop the threatening of
taking money out on schools if his proposition doesn’t pass? Because he is
being selfish and phrasing himself as “it’s earthier my way or the highway”. He
knows he can convince Californian’s to approve his measure by announcing the
money will go to schools when it won’t. Why doesn’t he threat to take out the
money on the bullet train approval which is far less more important than our schools?
Because he knows voters won’t really care about the bullet train, and they will
reject the proposition. Politicians want this measure to pass so they can
pocket some extra money for their out of control spending! Even the California
School Boards Association stated that “the governor’s initiative does not provide
new funding for schools” According to the voter guide. There are no real reforms to support the money
will be spent were the politicians claim to. As the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers
Association has noted that they featured an article claiming The Wall Street Journal
revealed “The dirty little secret is…new revenues are needed to backfill the
insolvent teachers’ pension fund.” We
all know how dirty and corrupted our politicians are. Not to mention when Gov.
Brown announced the closure of 70 state parks statewide and later resident’s
discovered that the Parks Department had been hiding 54 million dollars behind
them. Those 54 million dollars is a large portion of funds which could have
been used to keep those parks open, but since we have these selfish politicians
they can always try their best at overplaying the public by saying what the
public is expected to want to hear.
If this proposition passes the wealthy
people of our state would not be too happy with the IRS, because of all the
hard earned money they have to pay extra. Some of this money they have to pay
could be from overtime hours they spent on their job, and by giving it away to
the government won’t feel too good for them. I know if I was a millionaire I would
not like to pay more money than I already have been paying, and especially if I
know the money won’t even go towards the claimed destination. This will cause
argument wars between the taxpayer’s and the government regarding their increase
in taxes. Small businesses will also face some negative outcomes if the
proposition is approved. By the measure being approved it will make the business
owners to pay more in their income tax, and maybe even close because of the
profit money that will be left after these increase governmental deductions. In
this case it is possible for the employers to lay off some employees and that
will make unemployment rate rise. Also by the sales tax going up they will have
to lower the prices to try to get customers, because people will be trying
their best at bargaining, and business owners want customers to choose their
product.
Another reason why this
proposition shouldn’t be approved is because California is the state with the
highest sales tax already. Also California has the nation’s highest Welfare receivers,
and their income has been cut drastically from a single decade ago. This will affect
families receiving Welfare because they don’t even get enough income to be
affording all their expenses, and by sales tax increasing it will cause them to
suffer more financial problems. I am a freshmen college student with a family
like many others and I’ll say it is not easy affording everything and by
raising sales tax will cause an impact on us as well. A quarter cent might not
sound like a lot but in the aftermath it adds up to everything you purchase in
one year and that’s just on top of the existing amount of sales tax. For
example all the gas, food, school supplies, clothes, diapers, wipes and all the
other unlisted expenses. Most of us, and probably all don’t make 250k a year,
so we don’t pay attention to the income tax raise, but the sales and use tax is
what we should focus on.
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