There’s more than one way to fund the government – how much do you know about where your government gets and spends their money?

2023 out, 2024 in – this year I hope to continue to keep the foxes who are running our henhouse, well, at least somewhat nervous.

We’ve all heard California is one of the highest tax states in the union. It even has an effect on the quality of sports teams you get. My family enjoys baseball, whenever our son calls, we talk about the latest news. A player named Shohei Ohtani, has caught our attention, because he is fighting Gavin Newsom’s tax-happy agenda by deferring his $700 mil contract, essentially, until he retires and moves out of state.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/shohei-ohtani-dodgers-contract-opt-out-specifici-change-dodger-personnel.html

The good thing for the Dodgers is they get to use the money now to hire more good players. My son remarked that this will help balance the league – right now, he says, Florida is snatching up all the good players because they have no income tax. We’ll see what happens.

Did you know, all states have different ways of funding themselves? Did you know, nine states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) operate with no income tax – how do they do it?

9 Badass States Without State Income Taxes (and How They Get Away with It)

“…[income] tax-free states make up for the absence of income tax by charging other types of taxes, such as sales tax, corporate income tax, and property tax.” No, not all states charge all the same taxes, and some states rely on higher property, corporate and sales tax than other states. Sheesh, let’s all move to Wyoming – …” neither personal income taxes nor corporate income taxes. Property taxes and sales taxes are also low…” 

California is one of the higher tax states – not only does California have allllll the taxes, some of them are also higher than other states that charge the same taxes. Look at this article from US News –

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/states-with-the-lowest-taxes

Let’s look at Chico.

Click to access final_budget_for_web_1.pdf

Sales Tax $29,200,000; District Sales Tax $24,000,000; Property Tax 12,467,330; Property Tax in Lieu of VLF 9,800,000; Utility Users Tax 8,662,000; Transient Occupancy Tax 3,800,000; Other Taxes 4,679,400; All Other Revenues 1,583,901; Total Revenues $94,192,631.

I learned something new – I read an article about “Property Tax in Lieu of Vehicle License Fees” – read that and we’ll do a quiz next time. This is why the city keeps building more housing – the more they raise their property tax valuations the more VLF they get. The best way to raise property tax valuations is build new stuff, because you raise the base.

As far as where it’s going – Salaries and Benefits $52,050,314, over half the budget. And that’s just salaries – with all their additional costs, gear and such, the cops and fire take over 50% of the budget. I’m waiting to hear back from Dave Waddell about the amount of money we give the cops for “uniforms”, and how much of that goes to their personal gun hoards.

And Happy New Year to you folks out there. I hope you will make a resolution to guard your constitutional rights and make sure your elected officials are doing the job they’ve been entrusted with. As soon as somebody knows you’re not looking, it’s just too easy for them to fudge. We really owe it to the people we’ve put in these positions to help them do their jobs – just think of it that way!