[doglover]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califor...housing_market

Prop 13 is discussed in this article which has to do with a cap on property taxes for all in Ca. and how this has affected the housing market and schools in Ca.

I don't know about how the other New England states work, but here in Ma. each town has their own tax system that can go up if voted upon with a majority vote. Property assessment is killing those that are lower income and the elderly that have lived in the same home for years but because property values around them have risen, they can no longer afford the property taxes on their retirement income and have to leave. This is one of the reasons Prop 13 came about but not without it's problems also.

[RVer]

I am not familiar with California's taxes. But I am familiar with their strict communist rule over the people. I know this for a fact not only because what is public fact, but because living in Las Vegas for 10 years I met many of the California defectors. Vegas had a mass immigration of people from everywhere but Californians out numbered all other states 4 to 1 during the boom years of 1999 to 2004.

California was labeled the least business friendly state in the country. Why you as a peasant do not even have the right to own and operate a thermosat for your AC or heat in your home. They are set from the govt offices. They tell you what the temp in your home will be. You as the homeowner have no ability to set your thermostat. Cali govt is also very close to adopting regulation that would ban big screen TVs. Yes this means your govt is coming for your big screen TV set. Calififornia is also on it's way to ban black colored cars acording to the Cali Air Resources Board.

No one on earth has higher property taxes then New Jersey. I know this too because I lived there some 34 years before I escaped. An average home in NJ with about 2500 SF would cost you from $10,000 to $15,000 per year. California might have lessor cost property taxes but you will pay $2 million for a 2 bedroom 1 bath 600 SF home on a 40X80 lot. With both states, young people have no hope of ever getting out of college and remaining where they grew up to work and play. Unless they want to live with their parents forever.

This economic depression hurt nearly everyone who breaths. But there is some good from it with the cost of housing dropping like a rock.

[doglover]

http://www.google.co...W2U-J9xkiI7B4rQ

This paints a little more accurate picture of what you were describing RVer which has more to do with power outages and rare occasions when this may happen during a heat wave when energy consumption could cause power failures in Ca. when people run their ac's very high, but this has not yet been put into effect. There are pro's and con's to this ruling, but calling California a communist state is a bit extreme.

[RVer]

doglover said:

http://www.google.co...W2U-J9xkiI7B4rQ

This paints a little more accurate picture of what you were describing RVer which has more to do with power outages and rare occasions when this may happen during a heat wave when energy consumption could cause power failures in Ca. when people run their ac's very high, but this has not yet been put into effect. There are pro's and con's to this ruling, but calling California a communist state is a bit extreme.

Maybe. But dont take my word for it. Ask any ex Californians. They all call it communist after defecting to Vegas or beyond. Honestly I have not heard anything good from Cali defectors. But you know what? If I could afford it I would love to live in the Dana Point, Laguna Beach area. We both love it there so much. Now here is something you might enjoy. They have a beach in Laguna Beach that have signs posted. They say: "Dogs only, their Daddys and Mommys are welcome but leashes are not. No leashes allowed".

[doglover]

RVer said:

Maybe. But dont take my word for it. Ask any ex Californians. They all call it communist after defecting to Vegas or beyond. Honestly I have not heard anything good from Cali defectors. But you know what? If I could afford it I would love to live in the Dana Point, Laguna Beach area. We both love it there so much. Now here is something you might enjoy. They have a beach in Laguna Beach that have signs posted. They say: "Dogs only, their Daddys and Mommys are welcome but leashes are not. No leashes allowed".

I am an ex-Californian as of two years ago after living there for 45 years! A great deal of the people that left Ca. for Nevada left because they couldn't afford it anymore and threw in the towel for cheaper living, not better living in my opinion. I think Vegas is a toilet and now has one of the worst economies in the nation...worse than Ca. even. I'm not saying Ca. is so amazing but they are and have always been at the forefront of going green, high tech, energy, car emission standards, fashion, entertainment, Google, Hewlett Packard, Youtube, Craigslist. It's where you could go to reinvent yourself and start over with new ideas that the rest of the country hadn't considered yet.



Despite Its Woes, California's Dream Still Lives

http://www.google.co...W6vPK65FqwsiDHw

[Cali-girl]

So far, property taxes are not going up, however, the State has instituted an accelerated collection of income tax withheld from your paycheck - no big deal - we pay normally $117/wk in State withholding and its gone up eleven dollars per week.

This is being done to offset the budget disaster.

They are going to have to sell oil leases off the coast. Everyone wants it except for Karen Bass (D), State Senator from South Central L.A. and other Democrats. Hate to blame anyone, but the Dems are to blame for blocking oil drilling for a long time. Now, 14000 (fourteen thousand) teachers have been laid off and California could have had universal health care by now with oil lease money going to pay for it and education of all levels.

Even 57 percent of Santa Barbarans want drilling and SB is quite leftist. Its because they realize that social programs and education must get funding from somewhere!

[doglover]

Not coming back Cali-girl:tongue:

[Wyody]

I don't want to see oil-drilling within any reasonable distance of any coast - especially the beautiful Pacific coast.
I grew up seeing the strip-mining operations that gouged and defaced the midwest until the 60's.
Grew up seeing the "slums" of major cities.
Grew up seeing the horrible stains of unchecked smokestacks on the otherwise attractive bricks and stones of houses and towns all over the east.
Grew up seeing rivers turning orange and the wrong colors of blue and green.
As an adult, I explored pristine wildernesses only to find out that if I was successful in my exploration, they would soon carve a road into a mountainside and drag oil-wells into place on the mountain-top.
Bitter about the lack of progress in withdrawing from our oil-dependence anyway ... and the shame of it is that years ago, California lived in the future - of course, that was before it became a gigantic maze of red tape and unsolvable social failures.
Why can't we do what we used to do? Go find a country somewhere to invade or stake our presence in and then carry our oi ... ... oh, I forgot ... we already are. Never mind.

[Cali-girl]

I 'm sorry but I am not old enough to know about mining in the Mid West back in the 1960's or any of the other former problems affecting east coast brick towns. Sorry you lived in a time when technology was evolving. However, I am glad to let you know that the USA has moved on and solved many of the problems you encountered in the distant past.

I am very happy to tell everyone that in 2009 we have computer tech and CAD/CAM and can drill within feet of a source and do not disrupt ocean features and creatures as in the past - that is over 40 years ago.

I have lived oceanfront here in Cali where I could see several platforms off in the distance on a clear day when the marine layer lifted.

I'm not sure what the big deal is, the platforms were not any concern to me or to my neighbors and should certainly not be a concern to anyone living in some other State.

That's the thing about us Westerners - we wouldn't dream of telling someone else how to live their life.

For some reason, a certain part of the country contains lots of aged boomers who act like its 1968 always and are always telling the rest of us how we are to live.

As far as modern mining is concerned, there are laws here in Cali that require strip miners to replace the soil they've displaced and to return the natural contours of the land back to what they were prior to mining. They do this in Nevada and AZ too so I'm not sure what the problem is with this either.

Same with forestry. Companies had to replant which they did anyway. What killed forestry in CA was the spotted owl hoax.

As far as hiking concerned, I'm not sure where you went hiking to see something that upset you, but I can assure you that here in Cali, particularly along the Pacific Coast Trail, you won't see civilization, except for when you have to cross a road and maybe see a car or two pass by.

Maybe you saw something that upset you in some other State.

In fact, I have been in nearly every part of my State, including the Sierra back country and many many remote areas such as the deserts and I cannot think of one place where anyone would see anything like you described: hiking trail, a road carved out and drilling rigs. Most of the back country roads here in Cali were built during three eras: the Gold Rush and the Great Depression or during the early 1970's when they built Hwy 14.

So, you couldn't have seen anything such as you describe here.

Anyway, most people my age are not interested in hiking as your generation was. A lot of trails have gone to seed and are weeded over from disuse. Sorry, but time marches on...

Since I don't want to see my neighbors starve to death, I, and many other Californians (real ones, not the transplants who moved here from somewhere else) support farming, mining, forestry, commercial fishing, oil drilling.

These professions allow people to work with their hands and to continue industries that mankind has performed for millennia. How disgusting to prevent people from engaging in this sort of respectable labor. How elitist to determine that these trades inhibit one's view of certain scenery for personal enjoyment. Good grief. No wonder boomers are so hated by my generation.

~Cali-girl

[RVer]

Taxes. For what?

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Estate Tax (don't believe for a minute that double taxation doesn't
exist!)
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax,
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest expense
Inventory tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road usage taxes
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and no n-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years
ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle
class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened? The government happened, that's what.

And I still have to "press 1" for English.

[catfish]

The only good thing I can say about California, It was a good place to move out of.
So glad to be out of there.

[doglover]

What happened while you lived in Ca. that you dislike it so? I'm guessing that you are not originally from there. It's usually transplants that are the most disappointed in their adopted states.
Having only known Ca. until the last few years, I can say that with time I grew to dislike it more and more. The traffic was a biggy and I will admit hearing less and less of the English language started to grate on me. When I would start to feel that way, I would take a trip up to the Central Coast for a breather or to the mountains of San Bernadino to Lake Arrowhead which would do the trick for a little while but only for a little while until I had to drive back home.

[RVer]

When I was younger, the old saying was "go west young man". The west, meaning California was where the golden opportunity always was. In good times and in bad. And as such is nicknamed the Golden State.

No more. California now has a a bad reputation. Homes that only movie stars can afford, 3rd highest taxes in America, poor business climate, too much govt control, hightest priced gas, traffic nightmares and on and on and on. California is one of only 3 states that have a negative population migration. People no longer move to California but rather move out. 40% of Nevadas population boom are Californians.

Still.....California has it's beauty. We personally love Dana Point and if we hit that damn lottery we just might consider moving there because we love it so much. Laguna Beach just north of Dana Point is the art capital of the world. What a great place to live as a Hippy / Artist.

[RubyPearl]

I spent 13 years in CA - both in the North and South. I still have dear friends there. CA to me will always be dear. It was always good to me.

[RVer]

RubyPearl said:

I spent 13 years in CA - both in the North and South. I still have dear friends there. CA to me will always be dear. It was always good to me.

While I never lived there, as I said in my old post. Dana Point has a place in my heart too. It's still a great state, just way way too much govt interference in our lives.