In 2004, voters narrowly approved Proposition 63, the Mental Heath
Services Act (MHSA), which imposed an additional 1% tax on personal
income above $1 million. The funds generated from this
"millionaire's tax" were intended to expand county mental health
programs. Taxpayer and business groups opposed the measure for a
couple of obvious reasons. First, California is already a high tax,
high spending state that didn't need any more revenue. Second, as we
predicted, Prop 63 would exacerbate California's income tax
volatility.  Read more >>

The day before Halloween, Governor Schwarzenegger announced the formation of a bipartisan Commission on the 21st Century Economy to re-examine and modernize California's out-of-date revenue gathering laws that contribute to the boom and bust state budget cycles.  Read more >>

The November election could see Californians confronted with a record number of local tax hike measures. Despite the fact the economy is in the doldrums and people are struggling to pay for gas, food, housing, this hasn't slowed down local politicians making major new demands on taxpayers' wallets.  Read more >>

Last month I was invited to address a joint tax committee of the Utah Legislature to discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of various methods of taxing real property. Specifically, Utah is considering adopting an "acquisition value" based system -- such as Proposition 13 -- to replace its traditional "current value" system that taxes property based on what it is worth now rather than the purchase price.  Read more >>