[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Sorry, CNN, We're Not Going to Stop Talking About the Russian Collusion Hoax

"No Autopsy Can Restore the Democratic Party’s Viability"

RIP Ozzy

"Trump floats 'restriction' for Commanders if they fail to ditch nickname in favor of Redskins return"

"Virginia Governor’s Race Heats Up As Republican Winsome Sears Does a Hard Reboot of Her Campaign"

"We Hate Communism!!"

"Mamdani and the Democratic Schism"

"The 2nd Impeachment: Trump’s Popularity Still Scares Them to Death"

"President Badass"

"Jasmine Crockett's Train Wreck Interview Was a Disaster"

"How Israel Used Spies, Smuggled Drones and AI to Stun and Hobble Iran"

There hasn’T been ... a single updaTe To This siTe --- since I joined.

"This Is Not What Authoritarianism Looks Like"

America Erupts… ICE Raids Takeover The Streets

AC/DC- Riff Raff + Go Down [VH1 Uncut, July 5, 1996]

Why is Peter Schiff calling Bitcoin a ‘giant cult’ and how does this impact market sentiment?

Esso Your Butt Buddy Horseshit jacks off to that shit

"The Addled Activist Mind"

"Don’t Stop with Harvard"

"Does the Biden Cover-Up Have Two Layers?"

"Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Reinstated by MLB, Eligible for HOF"

"'Major Breakthrough': Here Are the Details on the China Trade Deal"

Freepers Still Love war

Parody ... Jump / Trump --- van Halen jump

"The Democrat Meltdown Continues"

"Yes, We Need Deportations Without Due Process"

"Trump's Tariff Play Smart, Strategic, Working"

"Leftists Make Desperate Attempt to Discredit Photo of Abrego Garcia's MS-13 Tattoos. Here Are Receipts"

"Trump Administration Freezes $2 Billion After Harvard Refuses to Meet Demands"on After Harvard Refuses to Meet Demands

"Doctors Committing Insurance Fraud to Conceal Trans Procedures, Texas Children’s Whistleblower Testifies"

"Left Using '8647' Symbol for Violence Against Trump, Musk"

KawasakiÂ’s new rideable robohorse is straight out of a sci-fi novel

"Trade should work for America, not rule it"

"The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Race – What’s at Risk for the GOP"

"How Trump caught big-government fans in their own trap"

‘Are You Prepared for Violence?’

Greek Orthodox Archbishop gives President Trump a Cross, tells him "Make America Invincible"

"Trump signs executive order eliminating the Department of Education!!!"

"If AOC Is the Democratic Future, the Party Is Even Worse Off Than We Think"

"Ending EPA Overreach"

Closest Look Ever at How Pyramids Were Built

Moment the SpaceX crew Meets Stranded ISS Crew

The Exodus Pharaoh EXPLAINED!

Did the Israelites Really Cross the Red Sea? Stunning Evidence of the Location of Red Sea Crossing!

Are we experiencing a Triumph of Orthodoxy?

Judge Napolitano with Konstantin Malofeev (Moscow, Russia)

"Trump Administration Cancels Most USAID Programs, Folds Others into State Department"

Introducing Manus: The General AI Agent

"Chinese Spies in Our Military? Straight to Jail"

Any suggestion that the USA and NATO are "Helping" or have ever helped Ukraine needs to be shot down instantly


Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

United States News
See other United States News Articles

Title: Good Drivers are Creating a Budget Shortfall, Proving Gov’t Needs You to Break the Law to Fund Itself
Source: Activist Post/FTP
URL Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2018/0 ... ak-the-law-to-fund-itself.html
Published: Apr 29, 2018
Author: Rachel Blevins
Post Date: 2018-04-30 08:44:39 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 138

The state of California is finding that the business model of relying on drivers to break the law in order to fund the state budget, fails miserably when drivers fail to break the law and cannot be slapped with exorbitant fees and fines.

California’s state budget currently relies on more than $450 million from penalties and fees collected from drivers who have been charged with both criminal and traffic violations. However, while trusting drivers to break the law at a rate that would sustain the state’s massive budget worked for a while, the strategy is now causing the state to go bankrupt.

A summary from the California State Auditor, as reported by Courthouse News, revealed that the revenue collected from citations “has decreased from 39 percent to 25 percent over the last three years as the number of criminal citations filed has decreased.”

The audit claimed that California is now facing a “significant financial burden,” which stems from a disconnected system that “lacks a systematic strategy.” In addition to drivers receiving fewer citations from police officers, the report found that a number of drivers who are cited never pay their fines, even when they accumulate substantial late fees.

As an Op-Ed from The Sacramento Bee noted in January, California is known to have some of the highest traffic fines and fees in the United States, and the drivers who are given citations often face a financial burden that can send them spiraling into debt:

California has among the highest traffic fines and fees in the country—and the steepest consequences for traffic violations are reserved for those who can’t afford the fines and fees. This results in crippling debt for the least fortunate Californians, from whom traffic courts have difficulty collecting any fees at all.

According to the Federal Reserve, nearly half of American households cannot afford $400 in unexpected costs. Yet in California, if a family misses a payment on a traffic fine, they can be slapped with a $300 late fee, raising the cost to as much as $500 for a ticket. That can be followed by a suspended driver’s license or jail time, even for non-safety related violations, such as late registration. Of course, this makes it less likely they can pay the fines.

Courthouse News reported that traffic cases represented the overwhelming majority, “approximately 82 percent on average, of all criminal case filings in the state from 2014 to 2016,” and that the audit report recommends “eliminating the use of penalty and fee revenue as funding sources for state and county programs,” based on the fact that the revenue collected through citations is often “unrelated to the needs of the state and county services.”

“The Legislature should reconsider the entire penalty and fee structure (criminal and traffic), decide whether to adjust or eliminate penalty and fee amounts, and whether to distribute the resulting revenue differently,” the report concluded.

If a business was facing the same problems the state government in California is facing right now, it would likely look for ways to cut its budget, in order to reduce the deficit from the decrease in revenue. However, because this is a state government—and a large, liberal state government, at that—California will likely look to increase the revenue it receives through taxes, in order to keep the same budget.

As a result, the residents of California who have followed the law and have not received any traffic citations will find themselves funding the state’s massive budget anyway, through increased taxes that are imposed upon them against their will.

The high taxes from the states, combined with recent changes to the federal tax law—such as putting a $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes—are likely to force some high-income residents in California and New York to seek refuge in states like Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.

An Op-Ed from The Wall Street Journal noted that California and New York have lost a total of 2.2 million residents since 2007, and that number is expected to grow by as many as 800,000 people within the next three years:

In places like California, where the top income-tax rate exceeds 13 percent, that tax could be deducted on a federal return. Now that deduction for state and local taxes will be capped at $10,000 per family. Consider what this means if you’re a high-income earner in Silicon Valley or Hollywood. The top tax rate that you actually pay just jumped from about 8.5 percent to 13 percent. Similar figures hold if you live in Manhattan, once New York City’s income tax is factored in. If you earn $10 million or more, your taxes might increase a whopping 50 percent.

While many Republicans celebrated the new tax bill and the mainstream media referred to it as “the most extensive rewrite of the tax code in a generation” when it was signed into law in December 2017, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul called out the government for celebrating tax cuts, without actually cutting taxes.

“Once again, under the guise of ‘tax cuts,’ everyday Americans will be hammered with even HIGHER taxes. Sleight-of-hand and slick marketing are about the only things that governments do very well,” Paul wrote on Facebook.

The current status of the state government in California serves as a reminder that the government’s ultimate goal is to extract revenue from you in order to fund its interests. When that cannot be accomplished by making you pay a large fine for running a red light, exceeding the speed limit, or possessing an “illegal” plant, the government will then turn to raising the taxes you are forced to pay on the goods, services, and housing that are necessities in your life, in order to achieve its original goal.

Rachel Blevins is an independent journalist from Texas, who aspires to break the false left/right paradigm in media and politics by pursuing truth and questioning existing narratives. Follow Rachel on Facebook, TwitterYouTube, Steemit and Patreon. This article first appeared at The Free Thought Project.


Poster Comment:

“Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it...

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.”

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Please report web page problems, questions and comments to webmaster@libertysflame.com