California – A Land of Contradictions
Greenberg notes:
“Because of
Proposition 13’s property tax freeze forty years ago, 70 percent of
California’s budget, which for 2018–2019 totals just over $200 billion in
spending, depends on personal income taxes, 46 percent of which are paid by the
wealthiest 1 percent. To illustrate the state’s precarious reliance on its
richest residents, a single zip code in the town of Palo Alto, where Mark
Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Apple CEO Tim Cook live,
accounted for nearly $1 billion in state taxes in 2016. A bad year in the stock
market, with reduced capital gains, could lead to a deficit, even if the
overall economy does well.”